Gardaí to question Gilligan drug gang members

SENIOR gardaí are expected to travel to the Netherlands this week to interview two fugitive members of John Gilligan’s drug syndicate.

Peter Mitchell and Shay Ward fled the country shortly after the murder of crime reporter Veronica Guerin in August 1996.

They were arrested last week by police officers in the Netherlands as part of a major British-Dutch operation against an international drugs network.

Two relatives of Mitchell were also arrested along with a British national in a raid on an Amsterdam flat.

Detectives found 10 kilograms of cocaine, two kgs of heroin as well as ammunition and false passports.

The Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU) is reported to have assisted in the operation.

The Mitchells, from Dublin’s inner city, and Ward, from Crumlin, were remanded in a Dutch court over the weekend.

Gardaí yesterday welcomed the arrest.

“They are certainly good ones from our point of view, particularly Mitchell,” said one source.

GNDU officers are expected to go to Amsterdam this week to question Mitchell, 35, who continued to traffic drugs from Spain and Holland into Ireland after he fled abroad.

Detectives from the Guerin murder investigation are also expected to go to Amsterdam.

While Mitchell and Ward were named during the trials of Gilligan, Brian Meehan and Paul Ward as members of the drugs gang, there was little evidence against them related to the murder.