 Agency came into being as part of the offensive against paramilitaries |
More than �500,000 has been seized by Northern Ireland's Assets Recovery Agency. It said some of the money had come from loyalist drug dealing in Belfast and the rest from fuel smuggling and laundering in south Armagh.
The agency is investigating 19 cases worth �8m.
It applied to the High Court in Belfast to freeze assets in two separate cases.
In the first, it froze assets to the value of �240,000 in east Belfast, linking the seizure to alleged drug trafficking and loyalist paramilitary activity.
In the second case, it froze �320,000 in south Armagh, which it said was linked to fuel smuggling.
The agency said its colleagues in the Republic of Ireland had taken action against the same criminal network.
The agency, headed by former senior police officer Alan McQuillan, worked with the Criminal Assets Bureau in the Republic in making the seizures.
They applied to the High Court for injunctions, which prevents the disposal of assets pending a court hearing of the cases.
Mr McQuillan said the system was working well.
"I know the public are pleased with this, because people come up to me in the street and tell me about it," he said.
"This now makes six cases that we have had - four of them are working through the civil process in the High Court and there are six working through taxation, which is another power that we have if we can't take them to the High Court.
"We are currently working on 19 cases in total.
"Even if people launder the money, we can follow the trail. Most of our work involves following money trails.
"If the money comes from crime it remains tainted. If it is converted into property or anything else it remains tainted by the crime and we can go to the High Court and freeze it and then seek to recover it."
He said within the last 12 months the agency had examined more than 140 bank, building society and solicitors' accounts.
"We are currently examining more than �8m of assets."
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I know the public are pleased with this, because people come up to me in the street and tell me about it 
