Drugs baron convicted of masterminding 'honey-trap' kidnap plot

Drugs baron Patrick ’Dutchy’ Holland, once accused of killing the journalist Veronica Guerin, was convicted today in the UK of masterminding a £10m (€12.6m) “honey-trap” kidnap plot.

A lorry driver from Rostrevor, Co. Down who was also part of the gang involved was also found guilty and will be sentenced later.

Holland, who has always denied any involvement in the 1996 assassination of Ms Guerin, was secretly filmed and taped planning to abduct a businessman and keep him prisoner until a massive ransom had been paid.

London’s Blackfriars Crown Court heard that at the heart of the scheme was a 24-year-old woman used as “sex bait”.

Posing as a work-hungry secretary, she was supposed to get a job at the would-be victim’s company then use her designer-clad charms to lure him from the safety of his office and lead him “to the slaughterhouse”.

But the enterprise fell at the first hurdle when the apparently eager job applicant was told there were no vacancies.

Before they could come up with an alternative plan, 68-year-old Holland and his four accomplices were arrested by armed police.

Holland was unanimously found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap Nasir Zahid between March 10 and May 2 last year.

So, too, were 24-year-old “sex lure” Khan Coombs, of no fixed address, and lorry drivers Simon Young, 38, and Gerrard Booth, 47.

Young, who earlier admitted possessing ammunition without a certificate, was also found guilty by the 10-strong jury of having a firearm – a ME38 blank-firing revolver which had been converted to shoot live rounds.

He was cleared, however, of possessing the weapon with intent to kidnap.

Remanding all five in custody, Judge Henry Blacksell adjourned sentence until May 2 for pre-sentence reports.

For Holland it will be his fourth major prison sentence in a criminal career stretching back decades.

In 1981 he was jailed for seven years for an armed robbery at the Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

Less than a decade later he was sentenced to 10 years for possessing explosives, detonators and fuse wire.

Then in 1997, not long after Ms Guerin was assassinated by a motorcycle pillion passenger, he was arrested for possession of 10kgs of cannabis resin.

Holland, originally from Dublin, was jailed for 20 years. That was reduced to 12 on appeal, but after three years remission he was released from Portlaoise maximum security prison in April, 2006

Interviewed shortly afterwards, Holland denied any involvement in the shooting of 37-year-old Ms Guerin.

“I haven’t killed anybody ever. There is no blood on my hands,” he insisted.