Spare a thought for Limerick’s gangsters who appear to be experiencing their own banking crisis. Last week, the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) froze the credit union accounts of two men in the city who are believed to have deposited more than €150,000 on behalf of drugs criminals.

Gardai say there’s a growing trend of gang members fooling or coercing acquaintances and relatives into making such lodgements for them.

Hoodlums with large proxy deposits in credit unions must have been alarmed by Brian Lenihan’s exclusion of the institutions from the state’s bank guarantee scheme, as it means only €100,000 of their savings are 100% safeguarded.

A joint garda/CAB operation has revealed that many Limerick criminals are keeping money in their homes and €500,000 in cash has been seized in raids since May. Unlike banks, however, drugs gangs usually have enough money to bail themselves out.

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