Criminal Assets Bureau returned almost €15m to the exchequer last year

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan is to bring CAB’s annual report to Cabinet this week

The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) office on Harcourt St, Dublin 2. File picture

The Criminal Assets Bureau returned almost €15m to the exchequer, including €4.38m from the sale of 18 properties, last year.

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan is to bring the bureau’s annual report to Cabinet this week, which provides detail on the work it did in 2025, including 232 warrants targeting organised crime groups and 37 search operations across 16 counties and three foreign jurisdictions.

The bureau continued operations to target the proceeds of crime, including assets derived from a variety of suspected criminal activities such as drug trafficking, burglary, and money laundering.

The bureau returned nearly €14.93m to the State, including €10.7m under Revenue provisions and €655,000 through social protection clampdowns.

A total of 18 properties were sold by the bureau last year, including a house on Dublin’s South Circular Rd which achieved €750,000 at auction last October.

A portion of these returns are used to finance the Community Safety Fund, which allows for seized monies to be directed back into communities to fund local projects aimed at building stronger, safer communities.

The report outlines that, during 2025, the bureau received 366 good citizen reports — down from 408 in 2024.

The bureau obtained 25 freezing orders from the High Court last year. The number of assets over which orders were made decreased from 174 in 2024 to 129 in 2025.

Commending the work, Mr O’Callaghan said over the past three decades Irish criminal gangs and their revenue streams have been relentlessly pursued and dismantled by the bureau.

“In those 30 years since [the bureau] was established, €200m was seized and returned to the exchequer, which led to significant prosecutions and disruption to major criminal networks.

It is an agency that is internationally respected in law enforcement. 

"The success of the bureau’s model continually attracts global attention. Seizing the proceeds of crime, be that money, property, or vehicles from individuals or organisations, is central to combatting organised crime. Organised crime is driven by money and the harder we can make it to obtain, launder and keep the money, the weaker these organised crime groups become.”

Internationally, the bureau deepened its relationships with Interpol, Europol, the Camden Asset Recovery Inter Agency Network, and UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

In 2025, the bureau received 132 requests for assistance from 21 countries, which the bureau was able to assist with. 

The bureau made 23 requests to seven different countries worldwide compared to 33 requests to 17 countries during 2024.

• Elaine Loughlin, Political Editor