Two Irishmen who were due to go on trial in Amsterdam for their part in an alleged cannabis-smuggling racket, after being freed from custody without condition in December, have since left the country, a Dutch court heard yesterday.
Dublin-born Mr Patrick Murphy (48) and Mr Garreth Williams (55), a portrait photographer, also from Dublin, failed to turn up at Amsterdam Criminal Court to answer charges of importing more than a tonne of cannabis into the Netherlands and possession of the drug.
Judges had agreed last December to a defence request to have the Irishmen released from custody. The panel of judges decided that the period they had spent on remand - since March of last year - was unacceptably long and could exceed an eventual sentence if they were found guilty.
Commenting on the court's decision to release Mr Murphy and Mr Williams unconditionally from custody, the Dutch State Prosecutor, Mr Piet Velleman, said: "In my view, the Irishmen should not have been let go . . . It should not have happened and these are now the consequences."
He said that the prosecution investigation had been seriously affected by delays in obtaining information from the Spanish authorities.
Mr Murphy's lawyer, Mr Dirk van der Heijden, told the court that his client was back on the Costa del Sol in Spain, where he ran a market stall selling chess and backgammon sets.
"His Irish passport has expired and he cannot travel because he cannot renew it," the lawyer claimed. "Mr Murphy needs to return to Ireland to personally collect an original birth certificate, but going back there could raise problems for him."
Mr van der Heijden confirmed that his client had previous drug convictions in Ireland.
The lawyer representing Mr Williams, Mr M.G. van Westrenen, said that he had been unable to make contact with his client and was awaiting instructions. "I don't know where he is, it could be Spain, but he might also be in Ireland, I just don't know," he told the court.
Two Britons, Mr Andrew Thomas (60) from Bristol and Mr Francis Allen (49) from East Redford, were the only members of the alleged drug-smuggling gang to appear in court yesterday. They were told that they were free to return to Britain until a new date for the trial was set.
The arrests were made at a luxury yacht marina at Huizen, near Amsterdam, after a Dutch police undercover team, acting on a tip-off, found 1,160 kg of cannabis hidden aboard a high-speed motor cruiser bearing the name Hollywood Seven in March last year.
The motor cruiser, registered in Mr Murphy's name, had been taken by road from Porto Duquesa on the Costa del Sol to the Netherlands by an Irish transport operator.