AN OFFICER with the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) has told the High Court that a man who is suing a newspaper over an article describing him as a "drug king" had reached a €100,000 tax settlement with the bureau and was believed to be involved in drug trafficking and welfare benefit fraud.
The officer said Martin McDonagh made a "global" settlement with Cab after it took High Court proceedings against him in which it secured orders freezing his assets, including a shop owned by him in Sligo.
Mr McDonagh, who has at all times denied he is involved in drug dealing, claims the settlement with Cab in 2004 was for unpaid tax and claiming the dole while working.
Yesterday was the fifth day of the action in which Mr McDonagh (45), Cranmore Drive, Sligo, alleges he was libelled in a Sunday World article of September 5th, 1999, which he claims described him as a "Traveller drug king".
The article was published mid way through Mr McDonagh's seven-day detention for questioning in connection with a major drug seizure in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, in September 1999. He denied involvement and was released without charge.
Referring to him under a nick-name, "The Shark", the article alleged he was involved in moneylending and had masterminded the importation of the largest amount of cannabis and ecstasy into the west of Ireland in 1999.
The High Court has heard Mr McDonagh had, in the days leading up to the drug seizure, associated with two people who were later convicted and jailed for six years for possession of those drugs for supply.
In evidence yesterday, a Cab officer who cannot be named, told Hugh Mohan SC, for the Sunday World, Cab's proceedings were brought against Mr McDonagh under the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996 for the purpose of freezing his assets and appointing a receiver to them.
"Our case was that he had been involved in drug trafficking for a number of years and in fraud against the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) in the UK," the officer said.
He said an examination of Mr McDonagh's bank accounts with the then TSB bank, by a Cab forensic accountant, showed that more than IR£700,000 had gone through them during the 1990s. This figure was challenged by Mr McDonagh's accountant. The case continues.