Russell Warren, in custody under the Witness Protection Programme, told the Special Criminal Court yesterday he changed large sums of money into Dutch currency in an Amsterdam bank for a drugs gang boss.
Warren said he collected, sorted and counted money before taking it to a bank in central Amsterdam where it was changed into Dutch guilders. He said he was working for a man, who cannot be identified by order of the court, and who is alleged to have been the leader of a major drugs gang based in Dublin.
Warren said he was involved initially in smuggling cigarettes and collecting money for the man and later started to launder money for him. He said that during his tobacco-smuggling phase he was dealing with sums of £30,000 upwards, rising to £400,000 when he was money-laundering.
Warren told Mr Peter Charleton SC, prosecuting, that from February 1996 he was travelling to Amsterdam at least once a week, and sometimes three times a week to change money. He said that after changing the money he passed it on to others, sometimes at hotels in Amsterdam and sometimes at a restaurant in Schiphol Airport.
Yesterday was the second day of the trial on money-laundering charges of Mr Kevin Meehan (60). Mr Meehan, of Stanaway Road, Kimmage, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to handling sterling bank drafts totalling £185,738, £4,500 in cash and a cheque for £4,000, knowing the money to be the proceeds of drugs-trafficking or other criminal activity on various dates in 1995 and 1996.
Russell Warren said that he had travelled twice to Amsterdam for Brian Meehan, Mr Meehan's son, who hadgiven him £500 and asked him to change it for him.
Cross-examined by Mr Kevin Meehan's counsel, Mr Paul McDermott SC, Warren denied that he was seeking revenge because his mother and father were both in jail serving sentences because of his activities. The trial continues today.