DUBLIN DRUG DEALER GUILTY IN JOURNALIST'S MURDER

DUBLIN -- A major Dublin drug dealer was sentenced to life in prison
Thursday after being convicted for the 1996 murder of Veronica Guerin, a
prominent Dublin journalist who reported aggressively on organized crime.

The dealer, Brian Meehan, 34, who had pleaded not guilty, was convicted in
the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, which was established to prosecute
political terrorists and other criminals.

Meehan was accused of being the driver of the motorcycle that took the
gunman to intercept Guerin's car on the outskirts of Dublin on June 26,
1996. She was shot in the face and chest six times by a man with a
.357-caliber Magnum pistol. The gunman, publicly identified only as Mr. A,
has been arrested but not tried. His trial is expected later this year.

Last November, another Dubliner, Paul Ward, a suspected member of Meehan's
operation, was also sentenced to life for the murder of Guerin, 37. The
court accepted testimony that he helped plan the killing and disposed of
the gun and motorcycle after the crime.

Meehan had sought to silence Guerin because of her stories in The Sunday
Independent newspaper, witnesses said. She had been shot in the leg in an
earlier incident, but had refused police protection.