John Gilligan, who was born on March 29th, 1952, was one of a family of four boys and five girls who lived at Lough Conn Road in Ballyfermot. He later married Ms Geraldine Dunne, also from Ballyfermot, and the couple have a daughter (26) and a son (25).
Gilligan got involved in crime in his teenage years and his first conviction was at the age of 15 for larceny. He has 16 previous convictions for offences ranging from larceny, receiving stolen goods, attempted robbery, assault and burglary.
He first went to Mountjoy prison in 1977 at the age of 25 when he was given an 18-month sentence for receiving stolen goods. Ten more prison sentences followed up to November 17th, 1993, when he was released from Portlaoise prison.
Early in 1994, Gilligan began importing packages containing cannabis into Cork from Holland. The cannabis deliveries started on an irregular basis in early 1994 and continued right up until October 1996 when the Garda began to uncover the gang's activities.
The Garda later estimated the gang imported 20,700 kilos of cannabis with an estimated street value of £180 million. The estimated profit for the gang members (excluding Gilligan) was £3.6 million.
Garda investigations estimate that Gilligan grossed about £16.8 million from his drug dealing between early 1994 and October, 1996.