Irishman’s extradition can proceed

A DUTCH court has ruled in favour of the extradition to Greece of an Irishman wanted in connection with a €50 million cannabis seizure.

Tommy Savage, 54, from Swords, Co Dublin was arrested in Amsterdam last January. The former paramilitary walked free a few days later after a Dutch examining magistrate decided he would not try to flee the country.

Yesterday, as the three judge court in Amsterdam delivered its verdict, there was no sign of the man, once described by gardaí as one of Ireland’s notorious runaway drugs traffickers.

A fortnight ago, accompanied by his Irish ex-girlfriend and their five year old son, the man known among Ireland’s criminal fraternity as “the Zombie” pledged he would come to court to “prove” his “innocence“.

He handed over hundreds of pages of a defence which, he claimed, would show he was the victim of a conspiracy involving internet fraud and attempts to cheat him out of the budget hotel he ran in Amsterdam. He claimed that those who planned the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin had tried to “set him up” and tried to “destroy” him.

Delivering the verdict, Presiding Judge Mr A Vermolen said: “Mr Savage submitted a very large file of documents which we examined but we cannot conclude from them that this person is innocent. Therefore we declare that the Greek extradition request is admissible.”

The Court ruled that all the conditions for the Irishman’s extradition had been met.

Extracts from Greek extradition papers read in court allege that Savage organized the loading of four tonnes of cannabis onto a container in the Netherlands which was transported to Athens in late 1996. Key witness statements claimed that he set up the shipment, but then a row over payment erupted.

If convicted he could face between 10 and 20 years in jail in Greece.