A man connected with the seizure of €4.3 million worth of drugs and who associated with a well-known Holland-based Irish criminal has failed to obtain a taxi licence.
Mr Martin Cervi (26), East Wall Road, Dublin, challenged a decision of the Garda Carriage Office to refuse him a taxi licence.
Dublin District Court heard he had two convictions dating back to 1996 and 1997 for unauthorised taking of a car, criminal damage and theft but was now hoping to make a living as a cabbie. He was currently doing a course in European driving and computers.
The court also heard however that on November 30th, 1997, gardaí seized £3.4 million (€4.3 million) worth of drugs in Tallaght and in a follow-up search of Mr Cervi's grandmother's house, they found £40,000 in cash (€50,000) in a box in the attic.Inside it were also Mr Cervi's passport and driving licence.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Cervi left the jurisdiction and he came to police attention there in 1999 when he was found with a handgun. He claimed he had bought it when drunk from a man in a bar. He was later sentenced to 80 hours community service by a Dutch court.
Det. Sgt. Gregory Sheeran, who was part of the 1997 investigation into the Tallaght drugs seizure, said he next came to garda attention in 2000 when he became friends with "an Irish criminal living in Amsterdam" who was involved in exporting drugs and arms back to Ireland. When this criminal was arrested in May 2000 in possession of a large amount of firearms and drugs, Dutch police were unable to locate Mr Cervi.
He next surfaced in this country in November 2000 when Det Sgt Sheeran got a phone call offering to make himself available for interview. He was interviewed and a file was to be prepared for the DPP in relation to the 1997 drugs and cash find but due to an inordinate delay this had not yet happened.
Mr Cervi's solicitor Michael Staines said the DPP had informed him that he had received no file in relation to 1997 and in the absence of this Mr Cervi was entitled to the presumption of innocence. "We are not living in a Kafkaesque society", he said.
Mr Cervi told the court he wanted to better himself and had put his past behind him. He did not know anything about the money found with his passport and driving licence but had simply left the documents with his grandmother for safekeeping.
He was a member of a large family and there was "not much private space" in the house so he had asked his grandmother to mind the documents for him.
He denied he had ammunition for the handgun found on him in Holland but had bought it for protection after he was mugged at knifepoint. "It is not actually a serious type of offence over there", he said.
Judge Sean MacBride said having regard to the concerns raised by the gardaí, he had to refuse the licence. If however the gardaí were satisfied in the future that he had cut all ties with people of "dubious repute" he could re-apply.