New developments in computers and technology provide new opportunities globally for illicit activities to expand into new markets. Political changes and the removal of borders in central and eastern Europe and further afield present new challenges in responding to organised crime at a national level. Our crime figures are experiencing the effects of these new developments but we are responding effectively, too. A major element of this response has been to hit the criminal where it hurts most – in the pocket. The Government's strategy on criminal assets has been that the pursuit and recovery of the proceeds of crime are essential to crime reduction and public confidence in the rule of law. The evidence of this strategy is illustrated in the main by the legal powers given to the operational agencies and, in particular, the activities of the Criminal Assets Bureau. It is up to the operational agencies – the Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions – to use these powers to ensure criminals do not profit from their activities. The Criminal Assets Bureau is regarded as a model of its kind in Europe. People come to Dublin regularly from across the developed world to see how it works and how effective it has been.