The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) made almost €500,000 from its first advertised online auction of confiscated high value luxury goods.
More than 100 items including watches, handbags, gold bars, jewellery and other assets seized from criminals were sold to buyers all over the world in an auction that finished yesterday.
All of the money will be given to the Exchequer.
The most expensive item sold was a Rolex watch that raised over €33,800.
The gold bars were sold for €1,900 and €1,950, while the most expensive handbag, a Chanel, sold for more than €4,600.
Seven luxury men and women's watches seized from a Kinahan cartel bagman Jason Reed and another gang member Thomas Rooney were auctioned off.
These included watches by Raymond Well, Audemars Piguet and Rolex, and were estimated to be worth over €62,000.
Reed and Rooney were sentenced to seven and six years respectively at the Special Criminal Court after they were caught laundering €400,000 in cash for an organised crime group.
The assets of senior Kinahan cartel figure Ross Browning were also sold, including several watches, jewellery and a diamond solitaire ring.
CAB targeted over €1.7 million of Brownings’ assets and seized a cottage in Garristown in north Co Dublin, a house in Finglas, land in Rush, thousands in cash and several luxury cars from him.
Originally from Hardwicke Street flats in Dublin, the High Court accepted garda evidence that Browning is "a close and trusted lieutenant" of the Kinahan organised crime group and was their 'principal representative’ in this country.
A convicted criminal Browning has also been involved in cash in transit robberies.
The CAB auction began last Friday and finished yesterday afternoon with bids increasing by thousands on some items up to the deadline.
Some bids increased by as much as €5,000 in minutes. Buyers registered from New Zealand, the US and from Europe, alongside Ireland. All 100 items were sold.
The auction arose from CAB’s policy of investigating the assets of criminals at all levels in organised crime groups.
"These targets continue to flaunt their criminally acquired wealth through the purchase of items like those in the auction, handbags, clothing, watches and jewellery," said the head of the CAB, Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins.
"However, the bureau targets criminals and criminal organisations of all shapes and sizes within communities regardless of their location," he added.
This is the first publicly advertised CAB auction and the bureau said it was now considering making it an annual event.
