xmas bail

John Gilligan paid just €12,000 to get out of Spanish jail for Christmas after arrest for drugs and weapon offence

• 22 Dec 2020, 18:24
• Updated: 22 Dec 2020, 18:24

HATED gang boss John Gilligan paid just €12,000 to get out of jail for Christmas.

The convicted drug smuggler secured his freedom with the bail deposit two months after being caged following his arrest for suspected drugs and weapons offences.

The size of the payment the 68-year-old had to make before he was allowed out was revealed today as he began his second week of conditional bail following a successful action by his lawyers while the court probe against him continues.

Gilligan, arrested on October 20 after a gun was found buried in the garden of his Costa Blanca home, has been banned from leaving Spain and ordered to sign on every fortnight at court as part of his release conditions.

He is thought to have returned to the villa near the town of Torrevieja where he was arrested so he can celebrate Christmas with his partner.

Gilligan and his girlfriend, a British woman known only as Sharon, were among six people held by police. His son Darren was also arrested.

The arrests took place following a police investigation into a drug smuggling gang the Dubliner allegedly led.

Detectives said at the time they had seized four kilos of marijuana and 15,000 powerful sleeping pills called zimmos which heroin addicts use to help them sleep and numb pain.

The raid on Gilligan’s home also led to the discovery of a rare gun described by Spanish police as the “same make and model” used to murder Veronica Guerin.

Irish experts have said the .357 Magnum is not the weapon used to kill the crime reporter at traffic lights in west Dublin in June 1996, although Spanish police have yet to make any response to the claims.

A judicial source said of Gilligan’s unexpected release, approved by a judge at Torrevieja’s Court of Instruction Number One: “The individual’s defence lawyer requested his conditional release on bail and the state prosecution service did not oppose the request.”