Monday, April 2, 2001
Three held as Dutch police seize 1,100kg of cannabis
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From Isabel Conway, in Amsterdam
Three Irishmen are expected to appear in court in the Netherlands later this week in connection with the seizure of an enormous hoard of cannabis destined for Irish streets.
More than 1,100 kg of the drug, with a street value of up to £11 million, was discovered when Dutch undercover police swooped as the gang prepared to load the drugs aboard a boat at a disused port wharf. It is likely that more arrests will follow in the Netherlands, according to informed sources here. The operation followed an ongoing secret investigation into the activities of Dutch-based Irish drugs barons, it is understood.
Several of the most senior members of the Garda national drugs unit travelled to the Netherlands earlier this month in connection with the investigation.
There has been no information from the Dutch police concerning the seizure and the Irish arrests. Police spokesmen in Rotterdam and Amsterdam said they knew nothing about the case.
Since the arrest of the Irish drugs criminal John Cunningham last year the level of cooperation between Dutch and Irish police has improved enormously. Excellent personal contacts between leading police on both sides has led to improved intelligence from the Netherlands on the activities of a number of notorious Irish criminals based here, a senior Dutch police source said.
The seizure of the cannabis was made at an empty coal depot at a secluded port side along the Dutch coast on March 11th. A gang of Irish and Dutch drug traffickers were moving boxes filled with blocks of cannabis from the building to a waiting boat when police swooped.
Two of those held are from Dublin and the third is from Co Wexford.
At least one of the Dublin men is believed to be a well known criminal who fled Ireland some years ago. It is likely that the three, who have not been named, will be brought before an examining magistrate later this week to have their detention in high-security jails extended for a 30-day period.
Under Dutch law, a preliminary trial date would then have to be set within 100 days.
In February, John Cunningham, Jennifer Guinness's kidnapper, was jailed for nine years for running a multimillion pound drugs and weapons trafficking operation to Ireland from his Amsterdam hideout.
Gardaí believe he may have handled drugs worth more than £20 million, flooding Ireland with ecstasy, cannabis and amphetamines. John Gilligan, jailed two weeks ago for 28 years, operated a large part of his drugs empire from the Netherlands.
Since the death of Veronica Guerin, others among Ireland's most notorious gangsters have also established Dutch bases
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