Dublin drug dealer earns thousands from renting out properties now deemed crime proceeds

A Dublin drug dealer has been earning thousands each month renting out properties that were last month deemed to be crime proceeds, the High Court has heard.

Mr Justice Alexander Owens acceded to the Criminal Assets Bureau’s (Cab’s) request for its receiver to receive the rental income that would have been sent to David Waldron, who the judge has accepted has been a “major player in the illegal distribution and sale of controlled drugs in Dublin since 2000″.

The judge said Garda intelligence is that David Waldron and his brother Christopher Waldron took a “leading role” in sourcing and supplying controlled drugs in the Cabra area after Eamon ‘The Don’ Dunne was murdered in April 2010.

Last month Mr Justice Owens made orders under section 3(1) of the 1996 Proceeds of Crime Act deeming three of David Waldron’s properties properties – in Cabra, Co Dublin; Gorey, Co Wexford; and Leixlip, Co Kildare – to be derived from or connected to crime proceeds.

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This week, the Cab’s barrister, Grainne O’Neill, said David Waldron’s estranged wife, Charlene, is living at the Ratoath Road, Cabra, property, while Waldron is living in Spain.

Counsel told the court that the Gorey mansion is being rented by a man called Egidijus Bubnys (31), at a monthly rent of €3,750 under a 40-year lease agreement. The Lithuanian national also rents the three-bed house in River Forest, Leixlip, and sublets it to 13 people, she said. The court heard he received rent of between €5,800 and €6,200 per month, of which he transfers €2,700 to David Waldron’s Spanish bank account.

Mr Bubnys was not before the court and is not a respondent to the Cab’s case.

Mr Justice Owens ruled that the Cab’s receiver is to be sent any income that David Waldron would have received from the properties. He ordered that Mr Bubnys should be notified of his orders and directed that no new tenants can be moved in. He adjourned the case to a date next month.

[ The quiet man: Inside David Waldron’s 25-year run in the Dublin underworld ]

[ Three houses linked to ‘major player’ in Dublin drug trade derive from proceeds of crime, rules judge ]

The judge previously said David and Charlene Waldron enjoyed “lavish foreign travel” inconsistent with legitimate income up to his imprisonment in March 2015, Mr Justice Owens has said. The lifestyle resumed when he was released from jail and they rarely used their bank accounts to defray ordinary daily living expenses, he said.

He said Waldron’s main income comes from drug dealing and Ms Waldron “cannot but have been aware of the source of her means”.

The Cab separately seized Christopher Waldron’s home at 61 Killala Road, Cabra, Dublin, having successfully secured High Court orders to the effect that it and some expensive watches were bought using proceeds from the sale of drugs in Cabra and Finglas.

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