A Dublin gangland figure and kidnapper of Mrs Jennifer Guinness has gone on trial in the Netherlands, charged with smuggling drugs and weapons. 49-year-old John Cunningham was one of several people arrested in Amsterdam last March, following a major surveillance operation involving Dutch, Irish and Belgian police.
In 1996 John Cunningham escaped from Shelton Abbey open prison in County Wicklow while serving a 17 year sentence for kidnapping Mrs Jennifer Guinness. At the time Gardaí suspected Cunningham had fled to Holland or Spain.
In March of last year, during a swoop by Dutch police in Amsterdam, Cunningham and several others were arrested. During follow-up searches, the police recovered a large quantity of guns and ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis with an estimated street value of £8 million. Some of the items were hidden in a swimming pool at the apartment where Cunningham and his wife were living. In earlier proceedings it emerged that Gardaí and the Belgian police had been working with the Dutch authorities. Phone-taps, photographs and videos as other high-tech surveillance methods had been used.
In court this morning, the judges inspected a loaded pistol Cunningham had on him at the time of his arrest and one of the semi-automatic weapons, recovered from a premises he was renting. The court heard how Cunningham and his accomplices used flower boxes to transport some of the goods. In telephone conversations they used code words, including computers for guns, cars for ecstasy, walter for a weapon and leaves or wallpaper for banknotes. It was also alleged that in 1998, Cunningham was involved in smuggling to Ireland a shipment of cannabis and weapons. They were discovered, by accident, hidden under pallets of pitta bread in Castleblaney, County Monaghan.
Of slight build and dressed in a grey jumper and jeans, Cunningham followed this morning's proceedings with the help of a translator. He told the Court he plans to observe his right to silence. The trial is expected to last three days, with the three judges due to give their verdict two weeks later. Dutch legal sources say that if Cunningham is convicted of the smuggling of drugs and weapons charges, he could face a sentence of between eight and fifteen years.
