The Criminal Assets Bureau should join up with elite police agencies in Northern Ireland to nail the kidnappers of Quinn executive Kevin Lunney, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin declared today.
The FF chief said a cross border, multi-agency response was needed to stop further attacks on Quinn directors.
His call comes in the wake of the horror ordeal of Mr Lunney, who was dragged off at knifepoint, savagely tortured and dumped on a roadway in just his underwear.
Mr Martin told Sean O’Rourke on RTE Radio One: “These are exceptional criminals. They are professional and vicious.
“The rule of the State does not run here.”
He said a no-holds barred response on both sides of the border is required. He added that the setting up of the CAB following the murder of brave journalist Veronica Guerin has been successful.
And a similar approach to the thugs was needed again.
Mr Martin said that ordinary policing will not sort out the problem.
On Sept 18, Mr Lunney, 50, and a father-of-six was pulled from his jeep near his Co Fermanagh home and driven across the border in Co Cavan.
There he was forced into a horsebox in a country yard and tortured on the orders of a gangmaster.
He was repeatedly cut and slashed across the face and body with a Stanley knife, doused head to toe in bleach and beaten with a wooden post.
His brother Tony Lunney said the gangsters who attacked his brother needed to be “apprehended, convicted and put away”.
The Lunney family had now taken a “sensible security precautions” - but they could only do so much without making daily life impossible.
He said a meeting he had with Garda Commissioner on Tuesday was “constructive”.
He added: “The Commissioner listened carefully, I was very happy with the way the meeting went.
“He’s very well informed. He has a huge job right across the country to do.
“I went away from the meeting thinking there’s certainly commitment to get the job done, but obviously the results have to flow through yet.”
