A garda told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that she arrested a Dublin man at Dun Laoghaire because she believed he had murdered the journalist Ms Veronica Guerin on the Naas Road in June last year. Mr Patrick Eugene Holland (58), a native of Dublin, with an address at Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow, is charged with possession of cannabis for the purposes of sale or supply within the State on a date unknown between October 1st, 1995, and October 6th, 1996. He has pleaded not guilty.
Garda Marion Cusack told the court she arrested Mr Holland after he arrived at the ferryport on April 9th, 1997. She said that at the time she arrested him on suspicion of having a firearm at the junction of the Naas Road and Boot Road on June 26th, 1996.
Cross-examined by Mr Brendan Grogan SC for Mr Holland, Garda Cusack said: "I had formed the opinion that Patrick Holland was the man who shot dead Veronica Guerin on June 26th, 1996.
"I was aware that he was being sought for the murder of Veronica Guerin. When I saw him coming through the port I was of the opinion that he had murdered Veronica Guerin and as a result I arrested him."
Garda Cusack was giving evidence on the opening day of the trial of Mr Holland, who has denied a drugs charge.
The court was told that as a result of the investigation into Ms Guerin's murder gardai uncovered a major drugs importation and distribution operation centred on a warehouse at an industrial estate in Dublin.
Detectives found 47 kilos of cannabis at the warehouse with an estimated street value of £470,000, and they believed the warehouse was used for the distribution of huge amounts of the drug.
Garda Cusack, of the Drugs Unit at Store Street, told the court that she and three other gardai were on duty at Dun Laoghaire ferryport on the morning of April 9th this year.
She saw a red VW Polo car being driven from the ferry by a woman and there was a male passenger in the front seat and a boy in the back seat.
She went to the passenger and asked his name. When he told her he was Patrick Holland she arrested him under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act on suspicion of having a firearm.
In reply to Mr Grogan, Garda Cusack said she had been told that Mr Holland was probably arriving on the ferry.
She said he was taken to Lucan Garda station because that was the centre for the investigation and all the materials were being kept there.
Supt Len Ahern, Ballyfermot, gave evidence of issuing a search warrant last February relating to premises at Brittas Bay occupied by the accused man's wife, Ms Angela Holland.
"I was reasonably satisfied that the firearm used in the murder of Veronica Guerin at the Naas Road on June 26th, 1996, was to be found there," he added.
Dr Dan O'Driscoll, of the Forensic Science Laboratory, said he examined slabs of cannabis resin found by gardai at a unit on the Greenmount industrial estate in Harold's Cross, Dublin. He said there were 47.8 kilos of the drug which could be used to make more than 470,000 cannabis cigarettes.
Earlier, opening the prosecution case, Mr Peter Charleton SC said that a man who used a false name rented a unit at the industrial estate in November 1995.
The unit was the centre of a drugs distribution operation on a massive scale.
Mr Charleton said that as a result of the murder of Ms Guerin gardai started a very large operation centred on particular areas.
Certain premises were searched, and on October 1st, 1996, gardai who searched a premises at The Paddocks in Blackhorse Avenue found a set of keys.
The court would hear evidence from Mr Charles Bowden that the keys opened the premises at Greenmount industrial estate.
It was the prosecution case that Mr Bowden was the man who used the false name to rent the unit at the industrial estate.
Gardai searched the unit on October 6th, 1996, and were convinced it was the centre of a drugs importation and distribution network.
They discovered a number of items in the unit including electronic weighing scales, wigs and false moustaches, 67 blank driving licences and sheets of paper with nicknames and figures, including references to "The Wig" who the prosecution contended was the accused.
Mr Bowden would give evidence that the figures referred to amounts of cannabis.
Mr Charleton said the operation was a wholesale operation to sell the drugs on to other sellers, and it was the prosecution case that Mr Holland was involved in using these premises.
On February 16th gardai searched the residence of Ms Holland, the accused man's wife, at Brittas Bay, where he also used to live.
There they found two blank driving licences which forensic examination showed were linked to the blank counterfeit licences found at the Greenmount premises.
Mr Holland was questioned about the drugs operation at Greenmount. Mr Charleton said it was the prosecution's contention that he was an integral part of the drugs distribution agency.
He said Mr Bowden would tell the court that he was involved in the drugs operation at the instigation of parties not before the court and was paid a substantial amount of money, earning £3,000 a week during one period.
He would tell the court that the drugs were brought in and left by a driver in the car-park of a hotel near the Naas Road where they were collected and driven to Greenmount industrial estate, where they were unloaded.
Mr Bowden would say that he knew the accused man as "The Wig" and that sometimes he would received 25 or 30 kilos of hash which he would then distribute to his own network of drugs users and sellers.
Sometimes the drugs were handed over to the accused at a hotel, a pub in the Strawberry Beds or a bar in Crumlin.
Mr Bowden would tell the court that the lists found by gardai were drawn up by the drug dealers to identify who was dealing and as a means of keeping records.
Mr Bowden would also identify the defendant as the person with whom he dealt.
The trial continues today.