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D-day for John Gilligan: Notorious gangster faces six years behind bars as trial begins

Sunday World sources last week indicated that discussions regarding a plea deal have been ongoing

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Gangster John Gilligan and close pal ‘Fat’ Tony Armstrong are facing jail sentences of more than six years when they appear before a Spanish court this week over the alleged running of a mail-order drug-smuggling operation.

A hearing on charges against the pair, who are to be tried alongside Gilligan’s son Darren and six alleged co-conspirators, is scheduled to begin before Court No.4 in the Palacio de Justicia in Torrevieja tomorrow.

It has been pencilled in to last three days.

Sunday World sources last week indicated that discussions regarding a plea deal have been ongoing between prosecutors and the defence over several months.

Gilligan (71) spent two months in prison on charges connected to the scheme after his arrest at his home in Torrevieja in Alicante in 2020.

He was later released on bail – amid warnings he faces spending a lengthy stint in jail if found guilty of drugs and weapons charges.

The weapons charge relates to a gun found buried in the back garden of his former Torrevieja home.

The pre-trial formal accusation submitted to court officials accused Gilligan of masterminding a plot to smuggle drug deliveries from Spain to Ireland inside consignments of toys and flip-flops.

Prosecutors say the drugs included cannabis and thousands of prescription-only sleeping pills dubbed ‘zimmos’ which heroin addicts use to help them sleep and numb pain.

The specialist police operation involved phone taps and car surveillance by an organised crime unit.

John Gilligan was the only one of the nine people indicted to be charged over the weapons find.

The number of powerful sleeping pills seized totalled more than 27,000.

State prosecutors are also seeking sentences of six years and 10 months for John Gilligan’s British girlfriend Sharon Oliver, and his pal ‘Fat’ Tony Armstrong.

Armstrong is well known to Spanish police and was arrested in connection with the death of the notorious Westies gang leaders, Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg 17 years ago.

Gilligan’s day in court tomorrow will come hours before he appears on Irish TV screens in the first of a three-part series on Virgin Media about his life of crime.

The pint-sized criminal, who is widely believed to have orchestrated the killing of journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996, claims in the series that he did not order a hit on her. He also lies that he did not assault her and only “lifted her to her car” when she bravely confronted him.

He then disgustingly claims Veronica had written an “80 per cent lie” about the incident.

Veronica’s bereft husband, Graham Turley, who has rarely spoken about the horrific murder of his wife, confirmed to the Sunday World that he was aware of the upcoming series.

“I think we were notified about it but we didn’t participate at all,” said Graham, whose young son Cathal, whom he had with Veronica, was aged only six at the time. Graham has since remarried.

In 2002, Gilligan was acquitted of the murder of Veronica.

Asked in the series about his reaction when he heard of Veronica’s death, Gilligan: “Nothing really. I could say for the cameras ‘I was shocked’. I wasn’t. It didn’t matter to me.”

Earlier, he says: “The reason I’m doing this is about the Veronica Guerin stories. It was the beginning of the end for me. It shouldn’t have happened that way to me. I was involved in crime and I was the big story of the day. I wish it never happened, I wish them people never done it. For her sake and her family’s sake as well, Not just for mine.”

Gilligan described how he got into cannabis trafficking but avoided dealing in heroin as “it ruins lives”.

He was given a 28-year prison sentence for the drug trafficking, but on appeal this was reduced to 20 years. In October 2013 he was released after serving 17 years in jail.

He explains how he became pally with now deceased leading criminal John Traynor – who was also involved in ‘fitting up’ Veronica Guerin when he acted as a double agent underworld source for her – through the dealing of travellers cheques.

But despite their cosy arrangement, with Gilligan going on to earn millions through similar financial wheeling and dealing through bureau-de-change ploys in Amsterdam, the crook who became known as ‘Factory John’ because of his warehouse jobs, does not have many plaudits for his ex-pal.

“John Traynor was a pure alcoholic,” he said.

“He’d drink three bottles of vodka a day. When he was sober he seemed to be a nice guy and as soon as he’s start drinking he’d be like Walter Mitty. This that and the other. He thought he was Supercrook and had notions about himself.

“He wanted to be the biggest crime boss in fraud. He used to be bragging about the connections he had with Martin Cahill, that he was well connected to Martin.

“Traynor had brothels, about 10 years before I met him, and when I met him he still had them going. He said he hadn’t but I found out he had. He said ‘I had a bit of trouble the other night with my business’. I said ‘what business?’.

“He said: ‘I have a girl’s club’ or ‘an exclusive club’ – I can’t remember the words he said to me – and [asked] ‘could you help me’, I said ‘no, I won’t get involved in any of that, no I won’t do that’.

“I said, ‘if somebody was picking on your family I will go with you no problem whatsoever’, but I said ‘not for the likes of that’.”

But Gilligan says he did admire Martin ‘The General’ Cahill, the infamous criminal who famously stole millions of paintings from Russborough House in Co. Wicklow and would later be assassinated by the IRA in 1994.

“I found him a nice fellow, a very, what we call, a Spanish criminal and he had great bottle,” he said.

“Everyone knew he had great bottle. He wasn’t a coward, he wasn’t afraid. Nine times out of 10 he’d be the first one in the door, whatever he was doing, holding up a bank, a post office a building society, he’d be the first in line.

“He was like the captain, go down with the ship. I found him an honourable man.”

Confessions of a Crime Boss is on Virgin Media One, tomorrow at 10pm.