BACK in the Thirties the only way the authorities in Chicago could nail Al Capone was through the tax laws.

The police knew he was the boss of bosses in the city and was directing all the murderous mayhem that surrounded the bootlegging industry that had grown up as a result of the prohibition of alcohol.

But they could never get one charge to stick.

So they got him "through the back door." Despite his lavish lifestyle he paid minimal taxes and that was his Achilles heel which enabled the authorities to get him to court, prove a case on a lower standard of evidence than in the criminal courts and send him off to Alcatraz.

Now our Government plans to use the same trick.

During his speech to the Labour Party conference yesterday Home Secretary Jack Straw announced that the courts would be given new powers to seize and confiscate the assets of "barons and racketeers" who profited from the drugs trade.

He will have struck a chord with the public when he said the aim was to hit the "Mr Bigs who prey on the misery of others to fund their luxury lifestyles -- new yachts, new cars and mansions secured like fortresses to protect appalling career criminals."

What he plans is to give the police powers to pursue suspected drugs bosses through the civil courts.

But there is a danger in all this. The subjects of these pursuits will be unconvicted of any crime and there is a significant difference between a convicted felon and someone who is merely suspected of involvement in crime.

What this is doing is giving the state the authority to reduce the level of proof needed and indulge in quasi prosecutions, avoiding the necessity of convincing a jury of a defendant's guilt.

And that is wide open to abuse.

Everyone, including the most evil criminal, has a right to the due process of our judicial system.

That system has been built up over the years to protect our citizens from misguided or even mischievous prosecution.

Any departure from that standard needs to be entered into with caution.

Forfeiture of assets is a common practice in the United States in connection with drugs crime. The authorities there are now pausing for thought because of a public backlash against perceived abuses -- so much so that there are calls for the repeal of anti-drugs laws.

We trust the new regulations proposed by the Home Secretary will take account of these difficulties.

We want the traffickers in misery to be hammered -- but the civil liberties of the innocent must not be nailed at the same time.

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