Murdered paramilitary boss has €1.9m assets seized

BRITAIN’S anti-racketeering agency said yesterday it had successfully seized assets valued at €1.9 million from the estate of a Northern paramilitary godfather killed in an underworld feud.

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) said the civil recovery order granted against the estate of ex-guerrilla boss Jim Johnston at Belfast High Court under new powers targeting organised crime was the first such seizure in the UK to top one million pounds.

“This is an important landmark for the agency and its partners in the fight against organised crime,” said ARA’s Northern Ireland chief Alan McQuillan.

“The outcome of this case is a very visible reminder to everyone in the community that there is no hiding place for ill-gotten gains.”

The seizure grabs Johnston’s former luxury home in Crawfordsburn together with seven further properties in the North, a holiday home in Co Sligo, commercial premises in Belfast and a significant investment portfolio.

The ARA said the assets were the proceeds of drug dealing and terrorism.

The British-wide agency was set up in February last year as part of the Proceeds of Crime Act. Its work has received particular attention in the North, where many organised crime operations are controlled by paramilitary groups.

Leaders of outlawed armed groups on both sides of the North’s sectarian divide have become conspicuously wealthy from activities ranging from drug dealing and extortion to cross-border smuggling and counterfeiting.

Johnston, 45, a leading figure in the Red Hand Commando, a small Protestant “loyalist” group linked to the larger Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), was shot dead outside his home near Bangor, 10 miles east of Belfast, in May last year.

Ammunition and a partially assembled bomb were later found in his home.

Security sources said they believed he was killed in retaliation for the shooting dead in 2002 of rival Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) commander Stephen Warnock.