A Dublin man whose son is serving a life sentence for the murder of Veronica Guerin helped to transfer £600,000 in drugs money from Dublin to Vienna, the Special Criminal Court was told yesterday.
Mr Peter Charleton SC, prosecuting, said the money transferred to bank accounts in Vienna opened by Mr Kevin Meehan and his son, Brian, was from a major drugs-smuggling operation run from Harold's Cross, Dublin.
It was the opening day of the trial of Mr Kevin Meehan (60), of Kimmage, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to handling sterling bank drafts for £185,738, £4,500 in cash, and a cheque for £4,000 knowing it was the proceeds of drugs-trafficking or other criminal activity in 1995 and 1996.
He also denies removing the money from the State. The prosecution is under the Criminal Justice Act, 1994, which makes it illegal to help to launder money from criminal activities.
Mr Charleton said Brian Meehan was a member of the Greenmount gang which imported very large amount of cannabis resin from 1994 to 1996 and sold it on the open market, splitting the proceeds five ways. He said Mr Kevin Meehan and Brian Meehan had opened a Vienna bank account in 1996 and used it to secrete drug funds. Their accounts had more than £600,000 sterling eventually.
Arrangements were made to access the accounts by code words "Meener" and "Goull". Mr Charleton said Mr Kevin Meehan must have known it was drug money.
He said an account was opened at the Irish Permanent in Lucan in August 1994 in the name of Noel Meehan and closed in December 1995, when another account was opened in the names of Noel and Kevin Meehan. In August 1996 money was withdrawn and changed into sterling bank drafts which were lodged in Mr Kevin Meehan's bank account in Vienna.
A bank account at Bank of Ireland in Dorset Street, Dublin, was opened in the name of Thomas Meehan in September 1996, and sterling bank drafts were bought in a woman's name, then repurchased by Thomas Meehan and lodged in Mr Kevin Meehan's account in Vienna. His fingerprint was found on one of the drafts.
Charles Bowden, who is in custody under the Witness Protection Programme, said he delivered cannabis to clients indicated by Brian Meehan and another man from a lock-up he rented at the Greenmount Industrial Estate in Harold's Cross.
The cannabis was sold to the five gang members - himself, Brian Meehan, Paul Ward and two men who cannot be named - for £2,000 a kilo and sold to clients for £2,100 to £2,250 a kilo. He said he passed the drugs money to Brian Meehan.
The trial continues today.