The Criminal Assets Bureau has been secretly investigating the finances of a cross-Border gang suspected of organising the human-trafficking operation that led to the deaths of 39 migrants in a refrigerated container.

The CAB launched the probe last year after receiving intelligence that the criminal group was amassing significant wealth from various types of smuggling, including people smuggling.

The bureau has been profiling the crime group’s significant assets, which are thought to include legitimate businesses and properties, according to informed sources.

However, its financial investigations have intensified significantly in recent days, as evidence mounts that the Irish gang was central to the smuggling operation that caused the deaths of the 31 men and eight women.

The bureau will also assist international police forces in investigating the financial transactions underpinning each stage of the global trafficking operation.

The bodies of the 39 Asian migrants were discovered in the early hours of Wednesday, shortly after the container had arrived by ferry from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to the port of Purfleet, Essex.

Maurice ‘Mo’ Robinson, a 25-year-old truck driver from Portadown, Co Armagh, was charged on Saturday with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.

He was one of five people from the island of Ireland to be arrested in connection with the crime.

Three other people arrested in connection with the investigation into the deaths of the 39 people were released without charge and are on bail, Essex police have confirmed.

British police are expected to travel to Ireland in the coming days to question the man arrested after disembarking from a ferry at Dublin Port on Saturday.

Essex police, who are leading the investigation, want to speak to him in relation to the deaths of the 39 people.

The cross-Border gang smuggles various contraband including cigarettes and alcohol, and has more recently been suspected of people smuggling.

Gardaí suspect the gang may also have been involved in an attempt to smuggle Albanian migrants across the continent to the UK two years ago.

Dutch police discovered six Albanian men hiding between crates of fruit in near freezing temperatures in a refrigerated trailer being transported to the UK.

The truck driver, Mark Allison, from Lisburn, was arrested and in March of last year he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for people smuggling.

He was found to be part of an international people-smuggling network and the court heard he had been previously caught in France for the same crime.

At his trial, the Dutch prosecutor told the court that the Albanian men were not dressed to withstand the temperatures in the trailer and could have suffocated or died from hypothermia.

The trafficked people said they paid the smugglers between €300 and €350 for their passage to the UK.

It is not yet known when the victims entered the trailer found in Essex last week, where temperatures can drop as low as minus 25C if the fridge is activated, or the exact route it travelled.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Eamon Martin yesterday called on people to keep their eyes open to the "reality" that human trafficking could be happening in our own towns.

At Mass at St Patrick and St Colman's Cathedral, in Newry, the clergyman said that "migrant smuggling and human trafficking feeds on the desperation of vulnerable people".

"The grim discovery of 39 people found dead in a refrigerated container near the Essex docks during the week has shocked us all," said Archbishop Martin.

"I encourage everyone to pray for those who have perished, for their loved ones, for all those caught up in this gruesome situation and for those who are called to respond.

"Pray that the identities of the dead can be quickly established and that all those responsible be stopped and brought to justice."

He added: "Migrant smuggling and human trafficking feeds on the desperation of vulnerable people, many of whom are fleeing from violence or economic uncertainty."

The clergyman said that smugglers and traffickers "exploit children, women and men who are prepared to use drastic measures to reach what they think and hope will be a better life, often only to be enslaved and manipulated in forced labour or prostitution".

He added: "The horror of this discovery should awaken us all to the reality that human trafficking could be happening right in front of us - in our own parish and in our own town.

"Let us resolve to raise awareness, to keep our eyes open and to co-operate at all levels of society for an end to this evil in our midst."

Irish Independent