Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GILLIGAN CAUGHT SHORT..
Drug boss ‘soils himself’ as handgun discovered Weapon is same as one used to kill journalist
DRUGS baron John Gilligan c*****d his pants “literally” when he saw detectives dig up the gun they believe could be the Veronica Guerin murder weapon.
The pint-sized gangster, 68, had to rush to the bathroom with a police escort after allegedly losing control of his bowels following the find.
Cops discovered the rare Colt Python .357 Magnum, the same type of weapon used to assassinate crime reporter Ms Guerin, hidden in the garden of his Costa Blanca villa.
One insider said: “When the gun appeared he had to go to the toilet. He needed to go to the toilet.”
Another added: “You can understand someone s******g themselves figuratively-speaking when police find a gun in your back garden but this was literally.
“Gilligan going to the toilet was an urgent necessity.
“It wasn’t a good day for him but it was a good sign for the police that this weapon could be hiding a lot of secrets and give detectives a great deal of interesting information when they’ve found out everything they need to know about it.
“Gilligan was present throughout the whole search, from the moment officers went over his garden with a metal detector to the moment it began to bleep and was then pulled out of the ground.”
The new revelation will add to the intrigue surrounding the speculation the powerful handgun, which had been wrapped in plastic at Gilligan’s four-bed home near the Costa Blanca town of Torrevieja could be the one used to kill Ms Guerin on the outskirts of Dublin in June 1996.
Her brother Jimmy has said he believes it is “highly unlikely” it is the murder weapon.
But Spanish police sources point to its rarity and the fact it was hidden n “like a souvenir” in Gilligan’s garden n and was “not being kept to use, quite e the contrary”.
They say it had been hidden by y someone who had placed it in a hole e they dug in the ground and covered d with gravel and cloth used to stop p weeds coming through before more e gravel was piled on top.
One Spanish officer specialising in n fighting organised crime revealed over r the weekend he had only seen two o guns of the type confiscated from m Gilligan’s garden in the past 20 years.
Gilligan’s embarrassing reaction to o the weapons find is an added extra a that has given Spanish police grounds s to believe they could have made e a dramatic seizure wit with potentially historic ramifications for the Veronica Guerin case.
He was arrested with five others on Tuesday including his British partner and his son Darren following a lengthy investigation into a drug smuggling gang Gilligan allegedly led.
The thug was acquitted of Ms Guerin’s murder at a 2001 trial but convicted of drugs trafficking and sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Sources said the raid on the drugs baron’s villa crucially took place as Spanish police were targeting a delivery to Ireland of cannabis and prescription-only powerful sleeping pills known as Zimmos which heroin addicts use to help them sleep and numb pain.
The insider said Gilligan was inside his home and another two suspects were in a car outside.
The drug baron’s current partner, a British national called Sharon, was the only woman held.
A S p a n i s h Na t i o n a l P o l i c e spokesman did not name Gilligan in a force statement but said: “Investigators managed to intercept four postal deliveries in Spain in which four kilos of marijuana and 15,000 pills had been hidden.
“The Irish criminal who allegedly headed t h e o rg a n i s a t i o n wa s sentenced to 28 years in jail in 2001.
“Irish investigators linked his organisation to the murder of the journalist.
“The revolver that has been found is the same make and model as the one used in the assassination of an Irish journalist in Dublin in 1996.
“Spanish officers are working with the Irish police to determine if it’s the same gun used to end her life.” A court of ficial , confirming Gilligan was
remanded in custody on Thursday after appearing before a duty judge in Torrevieja, added: “All six suspects are being investigated as part of a criminal probe opened for crimes against public health, unlawful possession of firearms and membership of a criminal gang.”
Gilligan , the only one of the six detainees remanded in custody, has not yet been formally charged with any crime. Charges are only laid shortly before trial in Spain.
Investigations of the sort Gilligan now faces can take months and even years in some cases to complete. He can be held on remand for up to four years without trial, although it is normal for most suspects to be released on bail after a maximum of two years.
Ms Guerin was working for the Sunday Independent when she was shot dead at a red traffic light on the Naas Dual Carriageway near Newlands Cross on the outskirts of Dublin on June 26, 1996. The gun used to shoot her by one of two men on a motorbike was never found.
Her funeral was attended by the then Taoiseach John Bruton, who described the killing as an
NOTORIOUS
“attack on democracy.” The assassination led to the formation of Ireland’s Criminal
Assets Bureau targeting ’ illegally acquired assets. Gilligan was tried for Ms Guerin’s murder after a former soldier who prepared the gun used to kill her agreed to turn State’s witness and was given immunity from prosecution.
As he acquitted him at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court Judge Diarmuid O’ D on o v a n s a i d h e h a d “g rav e suspicions” the gangster was involved. Former friend Brian “Tosser” Meehan was convicted of the crime reporter’s murder and remains in prison. news@irishmirror.ie