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Dublin criminal John Gilligan has been released from jail in southern Spain less than two months after his arrest for alleged drug and weapons offenses.
Gilligan, who was released seven years ago after 17 years behind bars in Ireland, primarily for drug-related offenses, was released on bail for Christmas at a request from his defense attorney. He was released last Monday.
The 68-year-old man has been banned from leaving Spain, required to surrender his passport, and ordered to sign every fortnight in court as part of his release conditions.
It is believed that he returned to the village near the coastal town of Torrevieja, where he was arrested on October 20.
Gilligan was one of six people arrested at the time as part of a Spanish police investigation into alleged drug smuggling.
Garda officials familiar with his case believe Gilligan was confident he could retake a place in the Irish drug trade while slowly expanding a modest drug and weapons smuggling business over the past 18 months.
During the raid in which Gilligan was arrested, Spanish police said they seized four kilos of marijuana and 15,000 sleeping pills called zimmos.
However, security sources in Dublin doubt that the Colt Python revolver found when he was arrested was the same firearm used to shoot Veronica Guerin to death in 1996.
They expressed surprise that the Spanish authorities had publicly stated that the weapon was being searched for possible links to the journalist’s murder.
Spanish police said they had found a rare weapon of “the same make and model” that was used to kill Guerin.
John Gilligan is pictured during a search operation in Alicante, Spain. Photography: Videograb / Spanish National Police
In the early and mid-1990s, Gilligan was one of the largest drug traffickers in the Republic. However, when his gang assassinated Guerin in 1996, the gang imploded, some members fled abroad and others were arrested in Ireland.
While Gilligan was never convicted of the murder, he was tried for drug smuggling and received one of the longest drug-related prison terms in the state’s history.
The weapon used by two men on a motorcycle to shoot Guerin on the Naas highway on June 26, 1996 has never been found.
Gilligan could have been in prison without charge for at least two years.
A judicial source in Spain indicated that the ongoing judicial investigation by a judge tasked with deciding whether Gilligan and the other five suspects should be tried was almost complete.
The source said: “The individual’s defense attorney requested his parole on bail and the state prosecutor’s office did not object to the request.
“The court agreed to release this person on bail because it considers that the investigation is almost finished and less burdensome measures can be adopted for the investigated person that will also guarantee that he does not escape the action of justice.
“As a condition of his release, as well as the payment of the bail, he has been prohibited from leaving Spain, his passport has been withdrawn and he has to sign every fifteen days in court. The investigation against this person and five others is ongoing. “
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