CAB chases Gilligan’s €17.7m drugs profit

THE Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is to sell off multi-million euro properties belonging to crime boss John Gilligan.

CAB is also taking a separate court case to force the drug baron to pay over €17.7m in profits he is estimated to have earned from trafficking.

The moves follow Gilligan’s unsuccessful attempt yesterday to overturn his drug conviction at the Court of Criminal Appeal.

CAB will go to the High Court early next year to dispose of Gilligan’s assets to satisfy a €2m tax demand.

The State is also appealing, to the Supreme Court, a High Court ruling which overturned an order directing Gilligan to pay over €17.7 in drug profits.

Gilligan, 51, yesterday had his 2001 conviction in the Special Criminal Court confirmed in the Court of Criminal Appeal.

While endorsing the need for the witness protection programme, the court was critical of how the scheme was run.

The court is to meet in November to consider Gilligan’s appeal against the 28-year-sentence handed down by the Special Criminal Court in March 2001.

Gilligan’s solicitor Joe Rice said they would compare his client’s sentence to other cases, particularly Real IRA boss Michael McKevitt who got eight years less for directing terrorism.

Welcoming the decision, journalist Veronica Guerin’s brother Jimmy Guerin said he thought Gilligan’s sentence would, realistically, be cut back.

The court will also consider an application under Section 29 of the Courts of Justice Act 1924, which allows it to certify a point of law of exceptional public importance to be decided by the Supreme Court.

Gilligan was originally convicted of 11 drug-related offences involving the importation and possession of a vast quantity of cannabis resin between July 1994 and October 1996. At the same trial, he was acquitted of murdering Ms Guerin and of three charges relating to importation of firearms.

The case against Gilligan had been dependent to a large extent on the evidence of protected witnesses Charles Bowden, Russell Warren and John Dunne.

They had claimed to have taken part in drug supply activities with Gilligan.

Gilligan claimed in his appeal that the Special Criminal Court had erred in placing any reliance on their evidence.

In their ruling, the judges said: “Undoubtedly the witness protection programme was badly thought out and almost developed a life of its own. One could hardly blame witnesses for trying to get the best benefits they could out of it, but to say their evidence was actually bought or that they were bribed is not borne out.”

The court found Gilligan had taken personal delivery of cartons of drugs at the Ambassador Hotel car park in Co Kildare and that the quantities were so large they were for sale and supply.

The court said it was satisfied Gilligan had been rightly convicted of possession of drugs for the purposes of supply to members of the so called gang. The court, however, added it was unsafe to describe Gilligan as the leader of the gang.

Gilligan was not there for the judgment but stayed in Portlaoise Prison.