DRUG LORD'S POUNDS 1M MANSION SEIZED

A luxury mansion used for trafficking drugs from North Africa to
Europe has been seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau.

The pounds 1 million home in Sneem, County Kerry is owned by Jan
Hendrik Ijpelaar, a notorious and wealthy Dutch trafficker in ecstasy
and cannabis.

The property, featuring tennis courts, a swimming pool, stables and an
accompanying island, was used by Ijpelaar, 53, to land drugs from
North Africa before shipping them on to Northern Europe.

The High Court granted the Criminal Assets Bureau an order for
possession and sale of the pounds 1 million mansion and island.

Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan appointed Barry Galvin, legal officer of
the Bureau, power to take possession of the property and sell it on
the open market.

It consists of Clashnacree House, Derryquinn, Sneem, Co Kerry, set on
20 acres and an island off the Sneem inlet, purchased in 1991 by Jan
Hendrik Ijpelaar, a Dutch national, of Dordtselaan, Rotterdam.

CAB's Chief Supt Felix McKenna told the High Court that Ijpelaar had
been a leader of organised crime in the Netherlands. He was involved
in the importing and exporting of ecstasy and cannabis and had no
other legitimate source of income.

He was convicted and jailed for six years in Holland in 1992 for drug
trafficking after a major investigation by Dutch police.

They succeeded in linking him to a factory which illegally
manufactured amphetamines and he served five years in jail.

He was arrested by Dutch police when, after moving to Ireland in 1992,
he returned to the Netherlands for one day.

The 20 acre coastal property -- which overlooks beautiful Kenmare Bay
- -- includes a stunning island off the Sneem inlet.

Ijpelaar bought the six bedroom mansion for pounds 300,000 from
another Dutch national, Ernest Weeland, while on a visit in 1992.

Gardai believe he bought the property to use as a base for importing
cannabis from North Africa into Northern Europe. They believe that
boats would have been able to moor on the island and unload their
cargo for transfer to the continent.

Yesterday Chief Supt McKenna told Mr Justice Finnegan that Ijpelaar
had gone to great lengths to conceal the purchase of the house. It had
been allegedly bought with the aid of a fake mortgage, taken out
through a company called Howard Financial Services.

The company which had been based in the British Virgin Islands in the
Caribbean had since been struck off, he said.

Ijpelaar was released from a Dutch jail in June 1997 but he has only
visited his luxury Sneem hideaway once since then.

He stopped visiting the house when he discovered that CAB officers
were keeping it under close surveillance.

The house will be sold off by public auction -- possibly in a number
of lots -- with the auction likely to take place in September.

Yesterday's seizure is but the latest in a series of moves by CAB
against a number of foreign criminals based in Ireland.