Pubdate: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 Source: Irish Independent (Ireland) Contact: http://www.independent.ie/ Author: Tom Brady, Security Editor IRISH, UK LINK-UP TO SMASH DRUG CARTELS THE Irish and British Governments are to join together in a legal move to crack down on the multi-million pound operations of major drug traffickers and crime gang bosses. The go-ahead for the joint action will be given by the Cabinet today and a deal is expected to be signed in Dublin next week by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Their aim is to streamline co-operation between the two governments to ensure that anti-crime legislation in one jurisdiction can be enforced in the other. A blueprint for the crackdown was finalised at a meeting in London last week between UK Home Secretary Jack Straw and Justice Minister John O'Donoghue, who will brief his ministerial colleagues this morning on the details. CONFISCATION ORDER The deal means that if a drug trafficker is convicted of serious offences here but has disposed of his properties and transferred his assets to Britain, the Garda can request the British police to move against the baron and carry out the confiscation order. The British authorities will then hold onto the assets, unless it is specifically requested by the Irish. Mr Straw is already introducing legislation which mirrors new laws brought in here in the wake of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin in the summer of 1996, leading to the setting up of the hugely successful Criminal Assets Bureau. But the bilateral agreement, officially described as mutual assistance in criminal matters, will have wider implications for the police on both sides, as it will allow them to carry out searches and take evidence that is relevant to a criminal prosecution. `SIGNIFICANT BOOST' One security source said last night: ``This agreement will be a significant boost to the efforts by the authorities on both sides of the channel to tackle organised crime as it provides legislative back-up to the considerable levels of co-operation that already exist between the police forces.'' Evidence of the close connections between Irish and UK-based crime gangs was confirmed again last week when a joint operation by the Garda national drugs unit and the Greater Manchester police smashed a gang importing heroin into this country. The Irish Independent revealed that a 22-year-old criminal from Ballyfermot in west Dublin was responsible for the importation of an estimated IEP40m worth of heroin in the first ten months of the year before the gang's transportation network was uncovered by swoops in Dublin and Dun Laoghaire last month. Other leading drugs supply gangs have also been shown over the past couple of years to have established key links with leading criminals in British cities. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry