TRANSPORT CHIEF GETS THREE YEARS ON DRUGS CHARGES

A CORK transport company manager who imported massive amounts of cannabis
resin for John Gilligan has been jailed for three years by Dublin Circuit
Criminal Court.

John Dunne made a profit of about IEP600 after his expenses for each
consignment, but gardai estimated that Gilligan made some IEP100,000 profit
each time on a shipment of some 250 kilograms, Judge Kieran O'Connor was
told.

Det Sgt Noel Browne said Gilligan paid a IEP1,000 fee per consignment to
Dunne who then had to pay groupage fees of IEP300-IEP400 each time. Gardai
had uncovered what was a most sophisticated drugs operation in the course of
the Veronica Guerin murder investigation.

Dunne (42), married and the father-of-three, of Midleton, Co Cork pleaded
guilty to 10 charges of unlawfully importing cannabis resin on dates in each
month of January to October 1996. He had no previous convictions.

Det Sgt Browne said Gilligan organised the shipments from Holland via Cork
Port in conjunction with Dutch criminals. He bought the cannabis for
IEP1,600 per kilo and sold it to his leading managers for IEP2,000 per kilo.
Each shipment contained about 250 kilograms. The cannabis was in packages
addressed to reputable Cork companies and marked usually as machine parts.
Dunne's job was to collect these packages and drive them to Dublin to what
gardai called the Greenmount gang.

Det Sgt Browne said the cannabis was collected at a Dublin hotel by Charles
Bowden and Paul Ward. Dunne worked as manager of the Cork branch of a very
reputable transport company and had been targeted by Gilligan for his role
in this intricate operation. He was unaware initially that the packages
contained drugs.

Det Sgt Browne told Judge O'Connor that Dunne had gone without any legal
compulsion to London some months ago and gave evidence in the British
Customs and Excise case against Gilligan. He had co-operated fully with
gardai in this case and prior to it was a very well-respected member of his
community.

There had been some very sinister developments since a recent trial and
gardai had to mount a 24-hour armed guard on Dunne and his family which
caused him great distress. He was going to have to live with that situation
for the rest of his life.

Judge O'Connor said Dunne had got mixed up in a reprehensible, vile trade
for motives of greed to such an extent he couldn't turn back. The court was
left in an awkward position as it had both a duty to the people of Ireland
and in this case a duty to Dunne that he have some degree of safety attached
to him.