AN estimated £13 million moved from bank accounts by a Dublin criminal under investigation for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin is believed to belong to Continental drug dealers.
The money was moved from bank accounts, in amounts ranging from £200,000 to almost £700,000, in July and August after the Government announced its legislation allowing the seizure of suspected criminal assets.
All the money was held in accounts opened by the Dublin criminal in at least three banks giving addresses in Ballsbridge, Blanchardstown and Co Meath. However, although he has become quite wealthy from drugs and tobacco smuggling into Ireland, gardai believe he has nowhere near the £13 million moved from the accounts in recent months.
Garda sources say this money almost certainly belongs to richer associates in the drugs trade in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. The criminal has been heavily involved in laundering cash through a betting scam and gardai recovered receipts for £5 million paid to him by bookmakers over the past year.
It is now accepted this money was being laundered on behalf of the Continental drug dealers.
It is believed the Dublin criminal was also used to lodge huge sums of money in this State's relatively unregulated banking system on behalf of the Continental traffickers. Gardai believe the criminal developed associations with Belgian and Dutch criminals about three years ago and arranged a £1 million drugs deal with the former leading Dublin criminal Martin Cahill.
Cahill was shot dead by the IRA in August, 1994, shortly after the million drugs and smuggled tobacco deal was arranged and, it is believed, there may have been a dispute between the criminal and Cahill's associates over the proceeds of this deal.
According to one Garda source, there were suspicions that Cahill was assassinated by a Belfast IRA figure as a result of the dispute over the £1 million deal.
Ms Guerin reported these suspicions and wrote about other aspects of the Dublin criminal's activities, including a £2 million to £3 million investment by him in a front company in the sports and leisure sector. At the same time, she was threatened and shot in the leg. She was shot dead in June while driving from a court appearance in Naas, Co Kildare.
Gardai said yesterday there was no indication of any connection between the Dublin criminal and the collapsed financial investment company run by broker Tony Taylor. There have been no complaints to the Garda yet from any of the investors, some of whom lost sums of money running to hundreds of thousands of pounds.
An inspector has been appointed by the Department of Enterprise and Employment to examine Mr Taylor's affairs and it is expected that his report will eventually be directed to the gardai.