An Amsterdam court has been told that John Cunningham (49), a Dublin-born fugitive, was allegedly controlling a drugs and weapons smuggling empire between the Netherlands and Ireland.
Cunningham escaped from Shelton Abbey open prison in Co Wicklow in 1996, where he was serving a 17-year term for kidnapping Mrs Jennifer Guinness.
Cunningham is before the three-judge court on drugs and weapons trafficking offences. The court was told he used Dutch hideouts and safe houses to hide drugs and weapons. Reports from undercover police, secret photographs and witness statements read in court alleged Cunningham picked up a bag bulging with £100,000 from an Irish truck driver. He returned it filled with 100,000 ecstasy pills a day later at a Dutch motorway between February 1st and 9th, 2000.
During a search of the luxury Amsterdam house he shared with his wife and 14-year-old daughter, police found 100,500 ecstasy pills with a street value of £1.4 million and more than 50 kg of speed (amphetamine) worth £600,000.
Using aliases and two false British passports, Cunningham had "declined to announce himself to the Dutch authorities by applying for a residency permit".
He was arrested on March 10th last year, the culmination of a five-month investigation by Dutch police and the Garda National Drugs Unit.
In a statement read in court, his wife, Mary, told police she knew nothing about his alleged involvement in drugs trafficking or how he financed their wealthy lifestyle. Drugs found at their home were in a cupboard. His Dutch and British associates, already convicted and sentenced, told how the drugs consignments were packed in flower boxes ready to go by lorry to Ireland.
Drugs and a large quantity of weapons were hidden at various addresses he rented and in safe houses used by his gang.
The court was told tapped phone calls and accomplices' statements revealed Cunningham's involvement in organising the transport, which was discovered in 1998 after a pallet slipped off a forklift truck in a store. At first it was thought an IRA splinter group was plotting to smuggle guns to Northern Ireland.
Five members of Cunningham's Dutch-based gang, including two Englishmen, have been jailed for two to five years.
The trial continues today.