Ex-CAB boss’s role in weapons sting

FORMER CAB boss Barry Galvin has told how he helped to nab an international supplier for the Iranian missile programme in his latest role in cleaning up the criminal justice system in the Seychelles.

The man responsible for waging war on drugs barons in Ireland after the murder of Veronica Guerin was hired by the government of the Indian Ocean islands to help combat corruption and money laundering.

In the RTÉ series Hostile Environment, the former chief legal officer and founder of CAB reveals how he was signed up to help clean up the paradise islands by bringing in the Al Capone-style laws that collared Ireland’s biggest crime lords.

He said: “After the shooting of Veronica Guerin there was as serious confidence crisis in the justice system and police in Ireland. The government embarked on a process of taking the money out of crime and drug trafficking and organised crime. It is nabbing the bad guy’s money.

“Against that background there was a problem out in the (Seychelles) and I was asked to come out and see what could be done.”

The Seychelles may be the ultimate honeymoon destination but in recent years it has been terrorised by pirates and has a growing heroin problem.

Mr Galvin said the Seychelles was perceived as a haven for money laundering because of dubious banking laws.

“There was some activity a few years previous where they were in fact advertising the place as a confidential centre where you could bring your money freely and they would guarantee that nobody would interfere with it and you wouldn’t be prosecuted,” he said.

“Because of international pressure, those laws were appealed. They did have in place a fairly modern anti -money laundering act but at the time I arrived there had never been a prosecution for money laundering.

But the solicitor helped to nab a major international dealer to the Iranian missile programme since he came to the job two years ago.

He said: “One of our first cases started with a suspected heroin trafficker, so the National Drugs Enforcement Agency got this information that this guy Dugash was heading out to Kenya to buy heroin and they met him at the airport and seized his cash, which was something in the order of $10,000 which was a huge sum for this jurisdiction.

“As part of the explanation he said it was cash belonging to himself and his friend Mr Hackle.

“On enquiry we find (Mr Hackle) is in pre-trial custody in Germany charged with supplying heavy duty graphite suitable for the manufacture of medium and long-range ballistic missiles and the nuclear weapons programme in Iran.”

Hostile Environment revealed that the German businessman admitted at his trial that he was selling graphite, which is used to make rocket nozzles, to Iran. He pleaded guilty and was convicted.

* Hostile Environment will be shown on RTÉ One tonight at 9.30pm.