Russell Warren's information to gardai was vital in their investigations into a major criminal conspiracy which brought the gang leader almost £17 million in a two-year period, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told.
Det Sgt James B. Hanley said Warren was also willing to give evidence based on this information in forthcoming trials. The only evidence on which Warren was prosecuted for the 16 money-laundering charges and one charge of the larceny of a 750cc Kawasaki motorcycle was from his own statements.
The motorcycle was later used in the commission of a very serious crime but gardai were satisfied it was stolen as a drunken prank and not for that.
Det Sgt Hanley told Mr Eamonn Leahy SC, prosecuting, that Warren was inducted into the criminal drugs organisation after a mutual legitimate business associate introduced him to a "Mr X" who had a betting connection.
This man asked Warren to help him count some money which he indicated was owned by a "Mr Y" and was the proceeds of betting and of the sale of smuggled cigarettes. The money was contained in a bag in "X's" house.
Some time after that Warren was offered £500 to bring the money to Amsterdam, hand it over to "Y" and return to Dublin. On one occasion he was told to hand it over to another man whom Warren did not believe was Irish.
He was glad of the money because he was having some cash flow difficulties with his upholstery and building-cleaning company at the time. He had often had to take on extra staff to clean new houses urgently but the builders were slow in paying for the work.
Det Sgt Hanley said Warren was arrested on September 30th, 1996, initially on charges relating to suspicions about firearms but he admitted his true role in the criminal organisation of handling money he knew was the proceeds of crime.
He revealed that within a short time of his involvement he began to realise the money being counted was earned from the sale of drugs and not from betting or smuggled cigarettes. But by that time he was totally scared of the gang leader and his associates and did not know how to get out.
On one occasion the boss shouted at him that he needn't bother trying to think about anything related to the gang's operation because he (the boss) would do the thinking for all of them.
Det Sgt Hanley said gardai took death threats issued against Warren and members of his family very seriously. His wife, Deborah, and her mother were under 24hour armed guard and Warren was in custody under a witness protection regime with another former gang member, Charles Bowden.
Within minutes of Warren's release from Garda custody on October 7th, 1996 after his first arrest, he was contacted by a top member of the gang and ordered to reveal what he and his family had told gardai. Det Sgt Hanley said this gang member then ordered Warren to travel to London the next day to meet him. "Come over or I will come and kill you all," he told Warren. The man who issued the threat was "most ruthless and well capable of carrying out the threat".
Warren was so terrified of this man he did travel to London and met the gangster at Euston Station. He was threatened and interrogated by this person for some time about what he and his family revealed to gardai.
Despite the threats, he gave more information to gardai when arrested again on October 19th, 1996, after his return from London. The gang's operations were stopped or at least badly disrupted as a result of his help and a large quantity of cannabis was seized from a warehouse in Harold's Cross.
Det Sgt Hanley said gardai were also fully satisfied that Warren's role in the gang was in collecting, counting and delivering money to the gang leader. He had never been involved in drug dealing or distribution.
The gang had two main divisions. One dealt with importing and distributing the drugs and the second with collecting, counting and delivering the money.
When Warren became involved, the money was counted in his friend's house. He then began counting it in his own home and eventually paid his parents to count it because there was so much and it took a long time. His parents were so glad to get his payments and did not ask where the money came from.
Warren revealed that the sums of money he was given to count varied initially from £20,000 to £30,000 but increased to about £70,000 generally, and even reached £160,000 at least once. He then realised it was drugs money and felt trapped in the gang.
Others were involved in the money-laundering aspect of the operation before Warren was recruited. Det Sgt Hanley said Warren would get regular instructions on the telephone from the gang leader who had moved to Amsterdam following a serious crime either about bringing the cash to him there or to some other place such as Dover or Calais, or to find some other member of the gang. The £10,000 amounts in two specific charges were sums the gang leader ordered Warren to take on separate occasions to London for a gang member who had moved there following the serious crime. Warren was instructed on another occasion to meet the gang leader in London where he was handed a bag with documents to bring back to a certain person. Warren was not paid any expenses for this trip.
Det Sgt Hanley said Warren helped gardai identify the Kawasaki motorcycle from certain features after it was taken from the Liffey cut-up and dismantled following the serious crime in which it was used. The owner also identified it when it was reassembled.
Det Sgt Hanley also agreed with Mr Paul O'Higgins, defending, that Warren received only "a tiny take" of about £8,000 from the whole operation.