Irish criminal John Cunningham should be jailed for 10 years in Holland - a severe sentence by Dutch standards - for trafficking large quantities of drugs and weapons between Holland and Ireland, a court in Amsterdam has been told.
Describing the 49-year-old Ballyfermot-born man as a "bigtime criminal" despite his "friendly face", the public prosecutor, Mr Frits Posthumus, said the Irishman's crimes, involving the large-scale exportation of hard drugs and weapons, were "harmful to society in Holland and Ireland" .
On the second day of the trial for trafficking, the judges heard that only property and money of Cunningham's amounting to 144,500 guilders could be traced in the Netherlands. At Cunningham's rented home there were 50,000 guilders, a diamond ring worth nearly £7,000 he had given his wife as a present and 24,000 guilders on her bank savings account, together with several cars they owned.
Cunningham's Dutch lawyer, Mr Martin Pijnenburg, claimed in court that his client had already been "stripped bare of all his assets" and " . . . won't be able to pay a dime". A request for Cunningham's extradition to Ireland was filed by the Irish authorities last year. He had absconded from Shelton Abbey open prison in Co Wicklow in 1996, where he was serving out a 17-year jail term for the kidnapping of Mrs Jennifer Guinness.
Judges will deliver their verdict in the case on February 21st next.