‘City would have suffered without top garda’

A key figure long associated with the Criminal Assets Bureau said Cork would have suffered far more from the influence of organised crime and drug barons had it not been for the dedication of a senior garda, about to step down.

Barry Galvin, the former head of CAB and prominent in its setting up to target crime gangs, paid tribute to assistant commissioner Tony Quilter who has announced he is retiring from the force after 32 years.

Born in Charleville, Co Cork, Mr Quilter had been involved in a number of high-profile drug interceptions, money-laundering probes, and murder investigations, after he had been transferred to the detective branch in 1991.