GARDAI are to go after Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s €12million foreign property empire as soon as new powers given to them become law later this year.
Senior officers believe the boss of the Hutch crime organisation made his money from various illegal activities and are determined to take it off him.
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The Monk deliberately bought houses and apartments in Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, the UK and Florida to keep his assets well away from CAB – the Criminal Assets Bureau.
But the new powers given to CAB will be passed by the Dail and become law by the summer, and this will allow them to hunt down the assets of Irish criminals abroad.
Both Government and garda sources say they will have Gerry Hutch in their sights especially since he was found not guilty of the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel shooting last April and can not be charged in relation to that event again.
However, a garda source said: “We will now be able to go after his money, the vast majority of which came from the proceeds of crime.
“Gerry Hutch didn’t make millions chauffeuring people around Dublin.
“The cash to buy all these properties came from somewhere else.
“We believe the money was the proceeds of various armed robberies which he denies.
“He may have walked free over the Regency but we are still investigating the whole Hutch crime family of which the Monk is the undisputed leader.”
Hutch claims his property business was funded by clean cash and that he settled with CAB for €1.5 million in 2000, almost a quarter a century ago.
Hutch is currently living in sunny Lanzarote where he owns a number of homes.
An address on the island is also the registered base for his Spanish real estate business.
He is also known to own at least one if not two properties in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.
This is the town where he was arrested over the Byrne murder and extradited back to Ireland to face the music.
NEW BILL
The new Proceeds of Crime ( Amended) Bill 2024 will see improved information exchange powers between CAB and law enforcement agencies in other jurisdictions.
This means CAB can identify and give other police forces the various details of properties paid for in other countries from the proceeds of crime.
The source added: “We will be following the money trail to see what cash is leaving the country and where it is being spent.
“Gerry Hutch’s property empire is worth at least €12million – we will have it in our sights over the next year or two.”
The new laws also mean assets acquired by criminal cash can be seized and sold off by the state within two years instead of seven years.
Gerry Hutch has properties worth €1.9million in Turkey, especially around the holiday resort of Kusadasi and the city of Izmir.
He also owns condos in Florida.
CAB currently has 600 profilers working for it tracking down the proceeds of crime.
They will now be able to go after far more properties abroad.
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