Guerin case man jailed

Amelia Gentleman

The Guardian, Friday 30 July 1999 01.58 BST

A second man was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for the murder of investigative journalist Veronica Guerin who had exposed Dublin's drug-dealing underworld. She was shot dead in her car in June 1996 as she waited at traffic lights.

Drug dealer Brian Meehan, 36, was found guilty of the murder of the Sunday Independent crime correspondent by the special criminal court in Dublin.

Meehan was the driver of the motorbike carrying her killer.

He was also found guilty of 14 offences relating to drugs and firearms.

Paul Ward was jailed for life last year for the same attack, but the search for the rest of the gang continues.

Major city drug gang smashed in £750,000 seizure

Irish Independent
Major city drug gang smashed in £750,000 seizure

By TOM BRADY Security Editor

Wednesday July 28 1999
GARDAI believe they have cracked a major Dublin city drug trafficking gang after seizing a £750,000 consignment in a park.Members of the garda drugs unit in Clontarf, backed up by the national drugs unit, uncovered the haul after a week-long surveillance operation in the capital.

Detectives stopped a man who is suspected of being a close associate of a leading north inner-city drug trafficker in St Anne's Park in Raheny and detained him for questioning.

They recovered a haul of cannabis, cocaine and heroin estimated to be worth £750,000 on the streets.

Last night a man and woman were both being questioned by detectives at Clontarf under drug trafficking legislation after their periods of detention were extended.

Gardai said the surveillance of suspects followed weeks of inquiries involving the local unit in Clontarf.

Meanwhile, a routine car search yesterday saw the seizure of cannabis with an estimated street value of £250,000.

Gardai made the find shortly before 8pm outside the village of Rathmore, Co Kerry.

Officers said the driver of a car parked outside the village had been acting suspiciously and an examination of the boot of the car revealed 25kg of cannabis.

A 36-year-old man with an address in Kerry was arrested and is being held in custody.

- TOM BRADY Security Editor

Witness too afraid to refuse orders from drug baron

Irish Independent



By DIARMAID MacDERMOTT

Wednesday July 07 1999
STATE witness Russell Warren told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he continued working for a drugs gang leader after the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin because he was afraid. STATE witness Russell Warren told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he continued working for a drugs gang leader after the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin because he was afraid.

Warren admitted that his activity in delivering hundreds of thousands of pounds to the continent for the gang leader, Mr A, ``became more intense'' in the months after the journalist's murder.

Questioned why he continued working for Mr A who allegedly ordered the murder, Warren replied: ``I was afraid not to. If I had left or tried to leave I don't think I'd be sitting here today. You can't say no to him.''

Warren has told the court he was the ``bagman'' for Mr A and provided the stolen motorbike used in the murder of Ms Guerin. He also said that the bike was collected on the day of the murder by Brian Meehan, who is on trial for the Guerin murder.

It was the nineteenth day of the trial of Brian Meehan (34), of no fixed abode, and formerly of Clifton Court, Dublin and Stanaway Road, Crumlin, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Guerin (36) at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, on June 26, 1996.

Meehan also denies sixteen other charges alleging that he unlawfully imported cannabis resin into the State on various dates between July 1, 1994 and October 6, 1996.

Cross-examined by Meehan's counsel, John McCrudden QC, Warren admitted that Meehan said to him during a conversation at a pub in Harold's Cross after the murder that Mr A ``had everybody in a mess because he had got Veronica Guerin killed''.

He also admitted that he was told to threaten two other friends of his that anyone who said anything about the stolen motorbike would be dead.

Warren said he believed Meehan was involved in the murder because he gave him the bike and because Meehan test drove the bike the night before the murder.

He said that no one had been paid for the bike which he identified as a motorbike gardai had recovered in parts from the river Liffey and which had been reassembled.

He said he did not know that anyone was going to be murdered when he followed a red Opel Calibra from Naas towards Dublin. Warren told Mr McCrudden that after he saw what happened he ``just felt sick. My legs would not work''.

Warren said that he had never been visited in prison by an official from the Department of Justice and said nobody had negotiated on his behalf.

The trial continues today.

- DIARMAID MacDERMOTT

£100,000 seized in swoop on car of drug gang

Irish Independent
£100,000 seized in swoop on car of drug gang

By TOM BRADY

Wednesday July 07 1999
A MAJOR Dublin drug trafficker and four of his suspected associates were arrested by gardai last night for alleged money laundering. Detectives from the garda national drugs unit in Harcourt Square seized almost stg£100,000 in a swoop on a car in the centre of Dublin. Gardai believe the money was to have been used as a down payment to purchase a large consignment of drugs for importation to this country.The drug trafficker, who has been shot twice in the past few years by members of rival gangs, is from the southside of the capital and is a former associate of murdered gangland boss, Martin ``The General'' Cahill.

The five suspects were arrested when the car was intercepted by gardai following a lengthy surveillance operation in the city.

The five were detained under section two of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1994, which deals with money laundering.

They were being held for questioning early today at Store Street garda station.

- TOM BRADY