THE ONLY man serving a prison sentence for the murder of Veronica Guerin has had two watches, valued at just over €20,000 and almost €6,000, seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
The designer watches were found during a search of Dubliner Brian Meehan’s cell in Portlaoise Prison last September.
The Cab confiscation case was one of four concluded at the High Court yesterday that realised for the State almost €300,000 in cash and property.
The two watches seized from Meehan include a Franck Muller Conquistador Cortez valued at just over €20,000 and a Briteling Bentley special edition gold watch valued at €5,850.
The search during which the watches were found was carried out as part of an investigation by the Garda National Drug Unit into the involvement of prisoners in drug dealing from prison cells via smuggled mobile phones.
The watches were seized, along with two rose gold and studded rings. Subsequent Garda investigations found the watches had originated in Amsterdam and represented the proceeds of crime.
The head of Cab, Det Chief Supt John O’Mahoney, and chief bureau officer Frank Cassidy, applied to the High Court for orders enabling them sell the items and transfer the proceeds to the Minister for Finance.
That order, under Section 4 of the Proceeds of Crime Act, was granted by Mr Justice Feeney yesterday.
Meehan (43), a native of Crumlin, Dublin, is the only person serving a sentence for Ms Guerin’s murder. He was jailed for life by the non-jury Special Criminal Court in July 1999 and given concurrent jail sentences of 20, 12, 10 and five years for drugs and firearms offences.
Meehan had been targeted by Cab before over €800,000 owned by him found hidden in an Austrian bank account.
Mr Justice Feeney yesterday has also granted Cab orders in relation to the proceeds of the sale of three houses owned by convicted heroin dealer Michael “Roly” Cronin. The 35-year-old from Ballymun and his associate James Maloney (26) were murdered last month in Summerhill in Dublin’s north inner city. They were sitting in Cronin’s car when a man in the back seat opened fire, fatally wounding them in the backs of the head.
Yesterday an order was granted to Cab by Mr Justice Feeney which effectively transfers two sums of cash of €102,000 and €179,874 to the Minister for Finance.
The money represents the proceeds of three houses – at Lower Buckingham Street in Dublin, Ballyboden Road, Rathfarnham and Wellmount Road, Finglas – owned by Cronin but seized by Cab in 2001 and later sold.
In a third case yesterday Cab was granted an order allowing the transfer to the Minister for Finance of almost €39,000 in cash.
The money was found during a Garda search of a cleaning business run by the girlfriend of Limerick drug dealer Michael Shannon (43), Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick. The father of five was jailed for eight years in 2002 in relation to the seizure by gardaí of ecstasy tablets valued at €1 million in June 2001 in Co Clare.
In another Cab case before Mr Justice Feeney yesterday an order was granted transferring some Stg£22,000 to the Minister for Finance.
The cash was seized at Dublin airport in February 2007 from Northern Irish criminal Kevin McEvoy.
The 40-year-old with an address at Ajax Court, Townparks, Co Antrim, was attempting to board an aircraft to Amsterdam carrying the money when his bags were searched.
His one-way ticket had been bought with cash and the money he was carrying was seized on suspicion it was the proceeds of crime.
McEvoy, who did not contest the Cab’s action, told gardaí when stopped that he needed to money to relocate because he had been told to leave Northern Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries. He has more than 40 convictions including drug dealing.