A man believed to be the world's biggest cocaine-trafficker is to have two Irish properties sold off by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
The bureau was granted an order in the High Court yesterday which will allow it to dispose of a penthouse in Dublin's docklands and a country estate in Co Meath owned by the English-born drug baron, Mickey Greene.
The properties are expected to fetch millions when put up for auction over the next few months.
Greene (60) is currently living in the south of Spain. Last year he escaped extradition to the UK, where police believe he is the world's biggest cocaine-trafficker, after the collapse of protracted legal proceedings.
A CAB source said Greene was a very powerful criminal who had defied all the efforts of "mainstream policing" and added that the case justified the special powers given to the bureau. "This is what it's all about. This is what we were set up to do," he said.
Greene bought the two properties in Ireland after he fled here in 1993. Maple Falls, at Pitchfortstown in Co Meath, was his country manor. It is a concealed site, surrounded by walls and trees. Facilities at the house include stables and a tennis court.
Gardaí believe he continued to run his drugs cartel from there and may have been responsible for organising a multi-million-pound shipment of drugs found at Moneypoint in the mid-1990s.
He lived the high life constantly surrounded by bodyguards. But he managed to blend into the racehorse scene of Co Meath, posing as a rich retired English businessman.
He bought the penthouse in Dublin as a base for socialising in the city. The two-bedroom flat has balconies overlooking the IFSC. It will be sold off complete with high-quality furniture.
"Both of these properties are unbelievable and between them should fetch a lot of money," a second CAB source said. "More importantly it shows that people like Greene can no longer live it up in this State and get away with it."
It is understood the drug-dealer gave his consent to the disposal of the properties, although this was not required.
Ireland is just one of many countries Greene can no longer enter. He had been on the run in California, evading French justice while renting Rod Stewart's mansion under an alias, when a twist of fate brought him here.
FBI agents swooped as he lounged by the pool and arrested him on foot of a French warrant for laundering gold bullion and cocaine. They put him on a flight for Paris, but he simply disembarked when the aircraft made a refuelling stopover at Shannon.
He began building a drug empire using Spain as a base to run drugs into Europe from north Africa as far back as 1982. In 1987 he was held after two tonnes of hashish was seized. He got bail and fled to Morocco, leaving behind 11 power boats and yachts he used for drug-running.
He next showed up in France where police raided his Paris apartment and found the cocaine and bullion. He was later sentenced to 17 years by French authorities in his absence.
He left Ireland after his involvement in a fatal traffic accident. He was charged with dangerous driving and causing the death of a father of nine, but escaped with a £950 fine.