Kildare man sentenced to 21 years reports UTV 29th June 2010

A 36-year-old Kildare man branded a "violent criminal-commodities trader dealing in death" has been jailed for a total of 21 years by a Belfast court.

The sentence was handed down for plotting to smuggle guns and bullets into Northern Ireland in September 2008.

Crown Court judge Mr Justice Stephens told Paul Edward Meehan, from The Crescent, Sallins, Co Kildare he was devoid of insight and remorse and would readily re-engage in supplying guns to criminal gangs.


Article Continues


The court had heard that Meehan, who crippled himself while joyriding in a stolen car when he was 19, had unwittingly plotted with undercover police from Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic and the Dutch Crime Squad in Holland.

Meehan, a cousin of notorious Dublin gangster Brian Meehan, the only man jailed for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, pleaded guilty to a total of 10 charges.

They included separate charges of conspiring to smuggle firearms and ammunition, cigarettes and drugs and four charges of using criminal property in the form of nearly €410,000 which was also confiscated from him.

Mr Justice Stephens said Meehan's offending began in February 2008, with the initial contact with the undercover officer "Neil" from the PSNI, and involved plans for smuggling cigarettes with the eventual loss of nearly two million pounds in duty.

It finished in September that year, added the judge, with a conspiracy "to possess an arsenal of high calibre modern firearms.....some of them with silencers and speed loaders in prestine condition and large quantities of ammunition ...together with 14 kilos of heroin at 40% (percent)purity and five kilos of cannabis".

The majority of the guns were to be delivered "to organised criminals in the Republic of Ireland while the remaining firearms to be delivered to what you believed was another criminal organisation".

However, Meehan's plans all came undone when on September 2, he was arrested in Belfast following a combined operation involving all three police forces.

Cross-border operation

Initially Garda in the Republic swooped as a consignment of guns and drugs was handed over to a Thomas Mulqueen at the Coachman's Inn on the outskirts of Dublin.

Once the weapons were in safe custody police in Belfast moved in and arrested Meehan in the Europa Hotel as he chatted with the under cover agent Neil.

Dutch police were then informed, leading to the arrest of four suspects and the discovery of "a further cache of weapons totaling 229 weapons, 800 rounds of 9mm ammunition and three hand grenades".

Mr Justice Stephen said had he succeeded in his plot Meehan would have strengthened the criminal gang he worked for and would have had "a destructive effect, not only at an individual and family level, but also at a community level".

He added it was also clear Meehan was totally indifferent "to the evil nature of such a criminal organisation, and to such destruction".

Mr Justice Stephens told Meehan that while he was not "the controlling mind" behind the Republic of Ireland based "criminal gang", he was "a trusted individual", and had "played a significant and integral role in these offences".

The judge said it was clear from the amount of drugs and firearms involved that Meehan was a "significant criminal figure with European wide, and even broader contacts which you used to progress your activities".

Mr Justice Stephens said while a self-centered Meehan "participated in a highly sophisticated, professional and well financed operation", by the end of it he felt he "had been made to look a fool" by a man he'd trusted but was in reality an undercover police officer.

However, at no time was there "a dawning or emerging realisation of the horror" his crimes could have "inflicted on others" and there was "no expression of remorse" on Meehan's part either.

"It is clear from the transcripts that you view yourself as, and are a commodity trader between criminal organisations.

"I considered that whether it is a trade in death concerns you not. You have no insight or remorse. You are a violent individual....You played a significant and integral role in dealing at the highest scale of organised criminals," said Mr Justice Stephens.

The judge added that the future also was bleak and he had no doubt that once freed Meehan would return to his old ways and old contacts.

"I also consider that you will as readily participate in the future ....trade in firearms, providing guns to organised criminals. That you will renew old contacts and seek out new.

"I consider that there is a significant risk of serious harm to members of the public in particular from any specified offence connected to the trade in firearms," concluded the judge.

Mr Justice Stephens said the "murderous use" to which some of the weapons, among them Glock pistols, Meehan hoped to smuggle were put, was clearly demonstrated from information from the Republic of Ireland.

"Glock pistols became a notable feature in gangland shootings in the Republic of Ireland in 2005. Five murders were committed using this type of pistol in that year," he added.

According to the Garda Technical Bureau, up to last year, of a recorded 179 shootings, the deadly pistol was used in 43 attacks.

However, Mr Justice Stephens said that up until now Meehan did not "express any concern for the consequences" of his crimes, but rather had "revelled in the transactions as business on the dark side".

Speaking outside the court after the sentence was handed down to Meehan, Detective Superintendent Essie Adair said he was "delighted" at the term of imprisonment.

"I think it sends out a very clear message that international organised crime will not be tolerated," said the top cop who also thanked and congratulated his colleagues in the Garda Siochana and the Dutch police.

He continued: "Without them and their co-operation the investigation could not have progressed and it shows that when we all work together, the results are significant," and added that a "dangerous criminal has been sent to jail, making our community safer".

Although asked if the guns were intended for dissident republicans, DSI Adair said he could not say for definite they were "but it's a possibility".