Veronica Guerin was talking into one of two mobile telephones she habitually carried while working when she was struck by six bullets as she stopped at traffic lights at Clondalkin.
She was leaving a message on the answering service of a garda detective sergeant whom she had known for some years. The message was in fun, telling him she had escaped losing her licence in the speeding hearing she had just left at Naas Court.
Her last words were played to the Special Criminal Court during Meehan's trial: "I did very well. Ah, fined a maximum of £150. Alt . . ." The recording picked up two loud cracks and then the telephone died.
Det Garda Pat Bane, who knew Ms Guerin from his role as a leader of the Garda Federation and who worked on the investigation into her murder, gave evidence that he recognised the voice on the recording as that of Ms Guerin.
Ms Guerin's next word, had it continued, was probably "altogether", and she was possibly going to say something about her sense of relief at not losing her licence as it would have affected her ability to work.
Mobile telephones had been used in the previous hours by those who planned and carried out her murder at the Clondalkin traffic lights.
Meehan was in contact with Russell Warren - the gang member turned State witness - who was tailing Ms Guerin's red Opel Calibra from the court in a stolen car.
Warren, who escaped a murder charge in return for giving evidence and is now serving five years for firearms and money laundering, made eight telephone calls on his mobile to Meehan before and after the killing on June 26th, 1996.
Warren was guiding Meehan and the gunman - referred to in the trial as "Mr E" and by his nickname "The Wig" - towards the journalist's car as it made its way back along the Naas Dual Carriageway to Dublin. Meehan, riding a stolen 500cc Kawasaki, caught up with the journalist at the traffic lights at Clondalkin.
Meehan made nine calls back to Warren from his mobile checking Ms Guerin's movements and, after the killing, about other arrangements for disposing of the motorcycle and the gun.
Meehan also made five telephone calls on the same day to the leader of his gang, referred to the in the trial as "Mr A", informing him of developments.
The court heard "Mr A" made one call from his mobile back to Meehan, and 10 calls to Warren.
All of these calls were logged on the subscriber's Eircell records, although none was recorded. All the telephones involved were of the digital (087) type, whose encrypted signals cannot be intercepted.
Mobiles played a further important role in the Garda investigation. Gardai in Dublin had, for the previous decade, become frustrated with the cumbersome radio messaging system used by the force through an awkward and complicated Command and Control Centre at Harcourt Street, and through the hand-held radios which are used to contact local stations. Neither of these systems is secure.
As a result, in the previous year or two, many of the detective team assembled to investigate the Guerin murder had bought their own mobiles (many through a discounted scheme offered to members of the Garda's voluntary medical fund) and used these to contact each other especially on sensitive issues relating to the case.
Some also had suspicions that the gang which killed Ms Guerin had some effective way of tapping into the internal communications of the Gardai, and not just through scanning radio messages. They were absolutely right.
Meehan, on behalf of the gang, had given at least £16,000 in bribes to a corrupt garda in Tallaght Station, John O'Neill (now serving 41/2 years for corruption) and O'Neill was relaying any information he had on proposed raids on the gang's homes or places of business.
The use of the mobile phones by the detectives in the Guerin investigation precluded the possibility of interception and the detective team was able to plan in secrecy raids which finally destroyed the entire cannabis smuggling operation.