Spanish police alerted John Gilligan after it emerged that he was behind the plot to kidnap the daughter of a rival gangster

Spanish police were alerted to John Gilligan after it emerged that he was behind a plot to kidnap the daughter of a rival gangster in the country, the Irish Sun can reveal.

And while he faces drug trafficking charges in Spain, sources say the nursing home, if convicted, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

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Gilligan, 68, who once threatened to rape and kill Veronica Guerin’s son, said he would murder the rival mobster’s young woman for an unpaid drug debt.

But the retiree and his gang abandoned the plot when the girl’s father agreed to ditch.

The Spanish police believe that the cash on the debt enabled the gang boss to finance his cannabis smuggling operation to Ireland.

Investigators identified the kidnapping plot after they established that Gilligan was using unsuspecting couriers to send weed back to Ireland.

Detectives suspect that cannabis was being smuggled into Ireland and later distributed by organized gangs of travelers.

Spanish police officers also recounted how they had gathered intelligence information that led to the discovery of three firearms in Dublin.

‘BACK TO ESTABLISH ITSELF’

A senior source said: “Gilligan has been trying to reestablish himself as a major player in the drug trade once again.

“In recent times he has been involved in many facets of organized crime. The kidnapping plot was in an advanced stage and was only abandoned because the girl’s father paid.

“We are before a man involved in drugs, firearms and intimidation.

“If he is found guilty of the charges on which he is being questioned, he could spend the rest of his life in a Spanish prison.”

Our latest revelations come after Spanish police yesterday released extraordinary footage showing the moment Gilligan’s lair was raided.

‘FÁBRICA JUAN’

‘Factory John’, filmed with his face blurred and a mask over his nose and mouth in the police video, was also photographed watching as officers proceeded to open toy boxes and unwrap gift items with drugs hidden inside.

It is understood that he was detained on Tuesday as part of Operation Padrino.

Since then, her son Darren and another Irishman have been released, while two other men who were arrested have been released.

Spanish police recounted how three 9mm Parabellum pistols “loaded and ready to use” were found in Ireland as a result of their investigation into Gilligan’s Spanish operations.

SIX ARRESTS

A spokesman for the National Police said: “The operation that led to the six arrests in the province of Alicante began last year after it was discovered that a gang allegedly led by a known Irish criminal had settled in the Torrevieja areas and Orihuela Costa. .

“The agents contacted other police forces and thanks to this international police operation they were able to identify other alleged members of the gang.

“Through initial investigations, it was discovered that the gang had allegedly specialized in sending drugs by mail by concealing them in packages that were sent to Ireland and the United Kingdom from Spain.

“Thanks to intelligence work carried out in Spain in cooperation with the Irish authorities, it was discovered that a shipment of arms was to be delivered in Ireland by members of the gang based there.

“This led to the seizure of three 9mm pistols that were loaded and ready to use.

“Thanks to the hard work of the investigators, four postal items were intercepted in Spain, in which four kilos of marijuana and 15,000 tablets had been hidden.”

‘ZIMOS’

Although the seized tablets have not been named, they have been described as sedative pills believed to be zopiclone, known as ‘zimos’.

Although Gilligan was replaced by the Kinahan cartel as Ireland’s main drug supplier when he was imprisoned in 2001, he remains a “person of interest” to Gardai due to his involvement in organized crime here for years.

He has been living between Ireland and Spain since 2018 after he was released from jail in the North for his possession of £ 20,760 in cash.

Since then, gardai believes he has been trying to forge links with drug gangs along the east coast of Spain.

They include gangsters from Eastern Europe. Officers also suspect that he has been trying to identify new smuggling routes to bring shipments of drugs and weapons to Ireland.

Although he was based in Spain during the Covid-19 crisis, Gilligan maintained close ties with the traveling mobs here.

Officers also believe he has forged ties with the gangster Dee Dee O’Driscoll in West Dublin.

GILLIGAN UNITED KINGDOM TARGET

And Gilligan remains a target of the UK’s National Crime Agency for her scheme to smuggle prescription drugs into the UK.

But his plans have now been shattered after his arrest this week. He is currently in custody on suspicion of possession of a firearm, carrying out a drug smuggling operation in Ireland and the UK, money laundering and kidnapping plot.

We may also disclose that Gilligan is wanted here in connection with a criminal damage incident at a property in Co Meath three years ago.

Gardai of Organized and Serious Crime continues to work closely with the Spanish authorities in his arrest.

And Europol is also taking part in the latest investigation into one of Ireland’s most notorious criminals.

Since Gilligan was unemployed, the Office of Criminal Assets could now re-examine his financial transactions.

Gilligan has been living a good life in Spain, despite having no visible means of income.

Before leaving for Alicante, he had also maintained close ties with the gang leader Troy Jordan.

But any association with the Kinahan mob ended abruptly after they tried to kill him, twice.

WHERE IS GILLIGAN?

The first occasion was in December 2013 when a hit man broke into a Dublin pub and yelled, “Where’s Gilligan?”

He was also shot four times in March 2014, but managed to survive.
On both occasions, a Kinahan cartel hitman was identified as the prime suspect.

Since his release from prison, Gilligan has been arrested twice. The first occurred in 2014 in the UK when he was picked up for allegedly threatening a lawyer. This was followed in 2018 in the North when he was arrested by the PSNI with a bundle of cash.

He was detained at Belfast International Airport with more than € 20,000 in his luggage before a flight to Alicante.

Prosecutors at the time said that he intended to purchase the prescription drug Zopiclone in Spain for distribution on the Irish drug market.
The zimos are sold by street vendors to addicts.

CASE IGNORED

Gilligan denied the claims. The case was eventually dismissed by a judge who said the suspicion was insufficient to justify a conviction.

Following his release from prison, Gilligan also tried to publish a book in the UK.

The drug packages Factory John has been shipping to Ireland are a far cry from the shipments he planned when he was the number one distributor in the country.

In his ongoing battles with Gilligan over the years, CAB investigators accused him of making his fortune by buying 21,000 kilos of cannabis from a Dutch mob for 25 million euros, and selling it for 42 million euros on the market.

During his long-running dispute with CAB, Gilligan claimed that he bought his properties “gambling large sums of money” through sportsbooks across the country.

According to the Office, Gilligan’s plan was an “elaborate ruse” to “construct an explanation for his possession of large amounts of money at a time when he had no known means of employment or other source of income.”

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CAB said: “He developed a criminal enterprise to facilitate the importation of cannabis on a huge scale. He organized a covert system for the importation of cannabis from Holland to Ireland. “

During her time at the top of the Irish mob, Gilligan also had an Aer Lingus gold card to travel around Europe organizing drug deals with deadly gangs.

He has long enjoyed ties to Spain’s Costa Blanca, where the family once ran a pub. It was sold before he got out of jail.