Laundered cash can generate apparently legitimate income

Noel Conroy was speaking after Irish police raided more than 20 properties in Dublin and Meath in a probe into suspected IRA money laundering.

More than 100 officers were involved in raids on a pub, a hotel and solicitors' and accountants' offices.

Mr Conroy said gardai were co-operating with the police in Northern Ireland.

"We are very satisfied with the way the inquiries are going," he said.

"There is excellent co-operation between ourselves and the PSNI and hopefully, in the very near future, we will be putting the investigation file into the hands of our Director of Public Prosecutions and it will be his decision afterwards as to what should take place. But I am confident."

About £26.5m was taken from the Northern bank's Belfast headquarters in December 2004.

Some money seized in County Cork was linked to the robbery, but virtually all of the missing millions remain unrecovered.

Police on both sides of the Irish border subsequently blamed the IRA for the raid.

Investigation

Meanwhile, Irish police believe that a property portfolio in the greater Dublin area was initially financed by crime proceeds.

They believe the pub and the hotel were bought with the proceeds of crime. No arrests have been made.

Three businessmen are suspected of being involved and a man in his 50s from south Armagh is believed to be at the centre of the operation.

A huge dossier of documents was seized in the investigation which was led by the Republic of Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau.

The raids took place over a four day period last week.

It is understood, gardai believe the money trail began in the late 1980s when the IRA was suspected of being involved in a huge slot machine racket in London and other major British cities.

In a separate criminal assets inquiry in Northern Ireland, assets valued at about £700,000 belonging to two alleged fuel smugglers in south Armagh have been frozen by the High Court in Belfast.

The two men under investigation are Damien John McGleenan, of Keady, and Neil Vallely, from Newtownhamilton.

Both men are fuel dealers in south Armagh. The assets seized include properties on both sides of the border.

Assets Recovery Agency head Alan McQuillan said anyone who has assets from crime risked having them frozen.