'Slab' Murphy hands over criminal assets portfolio

The alleged former leader of the IRA has agreed to hand over near €1.27m of criminal assets portfolio to authorities, it emerged today.

Top republican Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, and his two brothers Frank and Patrick, handed over cash, cheques and properties to Irish and British revenue officers.

The three men and the Ace Oils fuel company were targeted by police investigating a massive smuggling racket operating on both sides of the Irish border.

More than €625,000 in cash and cheques have been confiscated in the South while £445,000 (573,000 euro) and nine properties in the north-west of England were recovered by UK authorities.

A garda spokesman said the settlement was the culmination of a global crime and fraud investigation into the proceeds of crime.

“Today’s proceedings are the culmination of intensive investigations by the Criminal Assets Bureau and the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency,” gardai said.

“Both agencies have co-operated extensively, working in partnership to achieve today’s outcome.”

The Irish leg of the investigation was settled in Dublin’s High Court today while the UK’s seizure was finalised in a Manchester court yesterday.

The three men were under investigation since March 2006 when "Slab" Murphy's sprawling farm in Hackballscross, straddling the border between Louth and Armagh, was raided.

It was one of 15 residential and business properties searched.

More than €180,000 in mixed currencies, 30,000 cigarettes and 8,000 litres of fuel were seized while 30 archive boxes of documents, three tankers and a truck with a fourth tanker concealed inside were impounded.

An oil-laundering unit was also seized.

More than 100 gardaí, soldiers, customs and the fraud squad joined the PSNI in the dawn raid.

At the time, “Slab” Murphy was being investigated by the Assets Recovery Agency over house sales in Greater Manchester.

It is understood the raid and subsequent CAB action severely damaged the IRA’s money-making scams in the border area.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams later stood by the alleged former IRA chief and declared: “Tom Murphy is not a criminal. He is a good republican.”

In a separate investigation, “Slab” Murphy, 58, faces nine charges of tax evasion for failing to furnish a return of his income, profits or gains over eight years from 1996.

He is expected to try to block the trial in the High Court next month.