The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has initiated proceedings against a Dublin man who was found with almost €500,000 in the spare wheel of his car at Dover last year.
It is understood CAB are trying to seize at least one Dublin property owned by the man.
Michael John Byrne (43) was jailed in the UK in April for six years.
He was convicted at Maidstown Crown Court of laundering the proceeds of drug smuggling and concealing or disguising money amounting to some £500,000 (€ 704,000).
He was sentenced to six years on each indictment, to run concurrently. The case went unreported in Ireland at the time.
UK customs and excise officers stopped Byrne on June 26th, 2002, as he tried to board the channel tunnel train to France with an associate.
When the Mercedes car he was driving was searched, customs officers found a holdall bag containing €100,000 and £60,000. Byrne told the officials he was on his way to France to buy vintage motorcycles.
An examination of the spare tyre in the vehicle revealed it was crammed with euro notes. The total value of the cash found in the vehicle was just under €500,000.
The UK authorities then searched premises in Swanley, Kent, belonging to Byrne's girlfriend. They found £150,000 in a wardrobe. Another spare wheel was found, the tyre of which had been cut open.
A quantity of wrappers was also found at the property. After forensic examination, the cash and wrappings were found to be highly contaminated with heroin.
The UK authorities then contacted gardaí in Dublin. Irish detectives carried out searches at a number of premises which, UK customs and excise say, were controlled by Byrne.
At one garage in Dublin they found drugs and drug-making and distribution equipment contaminated with traces of heroin, cocaine and amphetamines.
During his trial the court heard Garda evidence that Byrne had regularly visited an address in west Dublin where traces of rock heroin, the heroin equivalent of crack cocaine, were found.
Byrne has had addresses in Lucan, Ballyfermot and Crumlin, as well as that of his partner in Kent. He still owns a property in Lucan. It is understood it is that property which has become the subject of confiscation proceedings by CAB.
Byrne was described by Garda sources as typical of a new breed of criminal which has become established in the State in recent years. He was involved in legitimate businesses, and had not come to the attention of gardaí until they were contacted by their UK counterparts.
Gardaí say while they do not know whether Byrne was genuinely on his way to purchase motorbikes when stopped, such investments are becoming more commonplace as a means to hiding the proceeds of crime. The assets are sold when criminals need money. In the interim they are stored at legitimate garages.
Many of the criminals successfully operate for a number of years before they come to the attention of gardaí, by which time they have accumulated considerable wealth.
Senior officers point to the increased value of drug seizures in the last 12 months as an indication of the huge amounts of money now being invested in importing drugs by criminals.
After Byrne's conviction, the UK customs and excise service said confiscation proceedings against him would also go ahead there. It was not clear at what stage those proceedings are.
