The Dutch trial of two Irishmen accused of the theft of £5 million worth of computer supplies from an Irish lorry in the Netherlands has been further postponed.
In court yesterday were the alleged drugs baron and millionaire crime boss, Mr George Mitchell (47), of Woodfarm Acres, Palmerstown, Dublin, and a lorry driver, Mr Thomas Massey (38), of Hill of Down, Co Meath.
Both men were accused of conspiring to rob and stealing a consignment which had left the Leixlip, Co Kildare, factory of Hewlett-Packard on March 4th for a Dutch customer.
A wealthy Dutch soft drugs trafficker, Mr John Bolung, was similarly charged. He is described by his lawyer as a friend and business associate of Mr Mitchell.
In court documents Mr Mitchell's permanent address in the Netherlands is given as the luxury apartment owned by Mr Bolung, who owns a number of coffee shops, places in Holland where soft drugs are sold.
After the proceedings opened yesterday, the public prosecutor said the state case was not complete and they were awaiting important information concerning a Garda investigation prior to the arrest of the two Irishmen.
The court was told the arrests were the culmination of several months of work by three Garda agencies - the National Drugs Unit, the National Bureau of Crime Investigation, and the Criminal Assets Bureau. It was as a result of intelligence gathered during various investigations that the international police operation was launched on March 4th last when the lorry left the HewlettPackard plant in Leixlip.
The five-man gang was arrested by Dutch police, who followed the lorry from the Belgian border to an industrial estate close to Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam.
Mr Mitchell, believed to have fled Ireland two years ago from a purported IRA death threat, arrived in a convoy of armoured cars from his Amsterdam prison. He complained bitterly to judges about being blindfolded and handcuffed and at the fact that his two daughters had been refused permission to see him in jail. He spent several minutes complaining about his alleged unfair treatment at the hands of the Irish media, the gardai and the Dutch prison authorities.
The Dublin man, who Garda sources say was worth in excess of £10 million when he left Ireland during the crackdown on organised crime, told the court: "I have suffered greatly through the media in Ireland."
The co-accused man, Mr Massey, who worked for the leading haulage company, Walsh Western, and who is a former Meath hurler, shook his head and remained silent when asked if he had anything to say after the charges against him were read out. The trial is expected to resume in August.