THE CRIMINAL Assets Bureau (Cab) is advertising two watches for sale at almost €30,000 that were found in the prison cell of Brian Meehan, the man serving life for the murder of Veronica Guerin.
The bureau has placed advertisements in today’s newspapers offering the watches for sale.
The designer watches were found during a search of Meehan’s cell on a landing reserved for gangland criminals in Portlaoise maximum security prison.
The High Court granted Cab an order allowing the confiscation of the watches after hearing Garda evidence that they represented the proceeds of crime.
The two watches are a Franck Muller Conquistador Cortez valued at just over €20,000 and a Breithling 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. Garda investigations found the watches had originated in Amsterdam and represented the proceeds of crime. Meehan was allowed to keep the rings after it emerged he received them as gifts.
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 to sell the items and transfer the proceeds to the Minister for Finance.
Meehan (43), from Crumlin, Dublin, is the only person serving a sentence for Ms Guerin’s murder. He was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court in July 1999 and given concurrent jail sentences of 20, 12, 10 and five years for drugs and firearms offences.
Meehan, who was a leading member of the drugs gang headed by John Gilligan, had been targeted by Cab before over €800,000 owned by him found in an Austrian bank account.
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