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| Daily Dispatch 12 Jan 07 MAGINNESS: QUESTIONS NEED ANSWERING ON ARA CHANGE SDLP Justice Spokesperson Alban Maginness MLA said questions need to be asked and must be answered about the sudden decision to roll the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) into the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). He said: “The ARA has done a good job even though it did not have the legislative backing that the Criminal Assets Bureau in the south enjoys. In particular it has had success against medium-level organised crime lieutenants who don’t have the resources to stay in business when their assets are frozen. There are concerns that this type of work might now be neglected in favour of going after the few big gang bosses that SOCA focuses on. “There is an even more serious consideration that here in the north we need a dedicated body targeting our home-grown organised criminals with paramilitary links. We need that body to work closely with the CAB in Dublin; in fact the SDLP would like to see a single all-Ireland Criminal Assets Bureau with the power to stop crime bosses border-hopping. “Amalgamating ARA into a larger agency focused mainly on a very different kind of organised crime in Britain and beyond puts such developments in question and may indeed hamper efficient combating of organised crime on this island. That is why questions must be asked and answered about this decision and its timing, and whether it is just part of the Exchequer’s cost-cutting agenda or a wider, more sinister, political agenda. I feel sure that a devolved Executive with its own justice ministry will want to revisit the whole area of combating organised crime.”
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