Court freezes €1m of 'Slab' cash

Nearly €1m seized by police during dawn raids on the home of former IRA chief-of-staff Thomas “Slab” Murphy in north Co Louth. Ireland has been frozen, it emerged tonight.

The Criminal Assets Bureau took control of the fortune following searches at several properties skirting the Irish border as part of probes into a massive smuggling operation.

The High Court granted orders freezing the money, made up of sterling and euro cheques and cash, and appointed the legal officer of the CAB as receiver.

Officers attempted to serve a notice on Murphy at his home in Ballybinabay, near Hackballscross, at 11am today, but he was not there.

A CAB source said: “He wasn’t there but we left for him, his brothers were there.”

The source revealed the money was recovered from a cow-shed on Murphy’s farm which straddles the Louth-Armagh border and he said the CAB believed it was all earned through an elaborate smuggling operation going back years.

“We believe that money is the proceeds of crime, of smuggling of all kinds, north to south and south to north,” the source said.

Orders were made against Murphy, his brothers Francis and Patrick, and an oil company which CAB believes is owned and controlled by the Murphys.

A number of sterling and euro interest bearing bank accounts have been set up to hold the cash until the matter comes before the High Court next month when CAB officers will apply for an extension of the freezing order.

The garda source insisted investigations were ongoing in a bid to smash the smuggling empire.

“The investigation is continuing in respect of other cheques and cash recovered during the search,” the source said.

“And we are also examining suspected money laundering and the whole empire and other property that was believed belonged to them, and other property that may have been bought by them and others connected to them.”

The raids in north Louth and South Armagh were one of the biggest cross-border security operations seen in years.

Involving more than 100 gardai, CAB officers, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and customs officials, Operation Achilles was the culmination of a major 18-month investigation into Murphy and his close circle of associates.

The extensive searches in the south were backed up by raids by up to 50 PSNI officers, soldiers and British Army helicopters in Newry and Crossmaglen in the north.

Bundles of cash and cheques were recovered at Murphy’s farm. It is understood the money had been put into two large bags and concealed under bales of hay in a shed.

Three people, aged in their 50s and 60s, were arrested, but Murphy was not home when swarms of officers landed at his farm. CAB detectives still want to question him about his finances.

It is believed the raids have uncovered one of the most profitable oil laundering facilities in the country.

Among the items found on the Ballybinaby townland were four oil-laundering facilities, a series of underground tanks linked to the laundries and six oil tankers used to transport laundered oil.

Six tonnes of highly toxic synthetic chemicals believed to have been used for laundering also had to be disposed of.

A 40ft curtain-sided trailer with oil tanks fitted was also uncovered along with two firearms and a large amount of documentation.

Two laptop computers, which could provide the key to the smuggling empire, were also recovered.