Pubdate: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 Source: Irish Independent (Ireland) Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd Contact: http://www.independent.ie/ Author: Tom Brady CRACKING DOWN ON THE DRUGS BARONS' MONEY Multi-millionaire Drug trafficker Paddy Farrell was shot dead by his girlfriend, Lorraine, in their love-nest in Drogheda little over two years ago. The crime sent shock waves through the criminal underworld along the Border as Farrell was known in the area as the "Mr Big" of a very lucrative drugs racket and was estimated to have built up a personal fortune of between pounds 25m and pounds 40m. His death meant that a highly profitable business was up for grabs and there were no shortages of contenders for his title. Two of the would-be contenders, Brendan "Speedy" Fegan and Paul "Bull" Downey have also since died victims of the Provisional IRA who were not satisfied with their distributions of the profits. RACKETEERING But the criminals were not the only group to take a keen interest in Farrell's financial affairs. Farrell had already been at the centre of a massive investigation, codenamed Operation Madonna, involving the Garda, the RUC, and police forces in London, Surrey, Merseyside and Lancashire into racketeering and suspected fund raising links between the paramilitaries and drug running gangs over the previous three years. After his death a fresh investigation was initiated and local gardai from the Louth-Meath division called in the Criminal Assets Bureau to take a fresh look at Farrell's assets. The inquiries were spearheaded by the CAB director, Chief Supt Fachtna Murphy and his then deputy, Supt Felix McKenna who has since become head of the Garda Fraud Bureau. The investigation resulted in close co-operation with several police forces and customs in Britain, the United States and the RUC until finally the trail led them to a bureau de change which they suspected had been used by Farrell and his gang to launder their profits from drug trafficking. A joint inquiry, codenamed Operation Factual, was set up by the CAB and the Fraud Bureau and it quickly became clear that Farrell was not the only drug trafficker to use the bureau de change which is situated close to the Border. On the Northern side the RUC set up Operation Beaumont as the complex task of unravelling the bank accounts used by the exchange here and another one in the North was tackled by detectives, backed up by expert advice from lawyers and accountants. Money believed to have been laundered by another big time drug trafficker from Mayo, who was handed a jail sentence earlier this year after being arrested by the Garda national drugs unit, was also traced back to the Border exchange. Huge profits from illegal trafficking in cigarettes internationally were also reckoned to have been laundered through the two exchanges but, it must be pointed out, legitimate money also passed through its accounts. Initial estimates after yesterday's series of raids show that up to pounds 70m passed through the Border exchange over the past three years and into a vast network of bank accounts internationally. Senior officers on both sides of the Border decided it was time to move against those involved in the suspected money laundering, drug trafficking, and unlicensed banking and on Monday night a team of 70 detectives were fully briefed at a meeting in Dublin in preparation for the early morning arrests. They were drawn from the CAB, Fraud and Drugs units and were backed by 30 local gardai while the RUC brought in back-up from the British Army and used military helicopters as their 150-strong team moved into Newry and south Armagh. A further briefing meeting was held in Navan last night as detectives totted up the cash that had been seized. It was reckoned that about pounds 1m in cash, cheques and drafts were taken from the premises searched including the two exchanges and one house where money had been stashed. Staff at the two exchanges were interviewed while four men and three men were arrested in the Republic and one man detained in Crossmaglen. But the Gardai were also determined to widen the paper trail and visited the offices of three accountancy firms in Dundalk, one solicitor's firm in the county Louth town and two solicitors' firms in Dublin. Files relating to some of the suspects and computers were taken for further examination in some of the searches while two boats moored in a marina at Carlingford, Co Louth, were also checked out. Early examination of the files has not unearthed any paramilitary links to the money laundering but experienced detectives said they were not ruling out the appearance of terrorists at some stage of the investigation. A lot of interesting names are likely to emerge as the inquiry progresses. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D