A convicted Cork drug trafficker was a major link in longrunning ecstasy trafficking operations between the Netherlands and Ireland, his trial here has heard.
Mr Sean O'Flynn (48), of Arigadeen Lawn, Togher, Cork, travelled frequently to Holland arranging drugs transportation until his arrest in August, his trial was told yesterday.
The accused man had served a three-year sentence in Spain after police found 104 kilos of hashish in his car. He had a large number of convictions in Ireland, none of them drug-related. According to a Garda and Interpol report, he left Ireland and went into "offshore" activities in 1995, the court was told.
Mr O'Flynn was arrested in Utrecht on August 15th last after being secretly filmed and trailed by a Dutch police undercover team who watched as he picked up a black sports bag. Police stopped a red Volkswagen Polo and discovered 25,000 ecstasy tablets in the bag. The arrest was the culmination of a major border surveillance operation. Police taps on mobile phones, the court heard, revealed that Mr O'Flynn had made numerous phone calls after arriving in the country on August 9th in which prices, pick-up points and details of ecstasy shipments were discussed. He was in frequent contact with a number of Dutch criminals suspected of involvement in supplying the Irish market.
The Irishman and his co-accused, Dutch national Mr Rob de Krijer, whose trial was postponed yesterday, got to know each other in jail in Spain and had frequent contact afterwards, organising ecstasy deals, according to the Dutch public prosecutor, Ms Chila van der Bas.
Calling for a four-year jail term for possession of ecstasy with intention to supply others, Ms van der Bas said Mr O'Flynn was clearly in the business of supplying the Irish market. The accused man's lawyer, Ms Benedict Ficqe, said her client accepted that he was in a car in which ecstasy tablets were found but he knew nothing further about the deal.
Dutch judges will give their verdict in the case on December 31st.