Broke mobster John Gilligan begs for cash in WhatsApp texts
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Irish Independent
17 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Broke mobster John Gilligan begs for cash in WhatsApp texts
Gangster John Gilligan is so desperate to get out of jail that he has organised a begging message which is being spread across WhatsApp groups.
Sunday World
17 hours ago
- Sunday World
Broke mobster John Gilligan begs for cash in WhatsApp texts
Gangster faces trial over pink cocaine haul Gangster John Gilligan is so desperate to get out of jail that he has organised a begging message which is being spread across WhatsApp groups. Gilligan has been banged up in prison in Spain since he was nabbed in a swoop on a pink cocaine ring in Alicante. He was placed in custody last December but it is understood he already owed a lawyer money from previous court appearances and has nothing left in the bank to pay the bill. The message which is being shared across Alicante and Ireland reads: 'My name is **** I am a good friend of John Gilligan, he is 73, and in prison in Spain broke. John helped loads in his life and now he needs help money wise, no amount too small. 'Please share this WhatsApp wth you friend an how John's friends get to see it. To sent to lawyers bank account (Details given). RE John Gilligan. Money gram, western union or bank transfers.' Spanish police arrest John Gilligan Gilligan is more than eight months behind bars in Forcalent but under Spanish law it could take up to four years before he is even charged with an offence as magistrates take on police investigations and review the findings before charges are levelled. Gilligan had previously hoped his former partner, Sharon Oliver, would hand around his begging bowl after he was nabbed in her two-bedroom apartment with a large quantity of pink cocaine and another synthetic substance. He had been living in the property rent free after she had returned to England following her own arrest on a previous drug offence which resulted in a fine for Gilligan and a suspended sentence. Oliver was ultimately cleared in court of involvement in Gilligan's drugs business. Friends say Gilligan is 'washed up', broke and hoping that his begging text will urge former associates to dig deep and help. He was once Ireland's biggest drug dealer before his gang murdered journalist Veronica Guerin and he got a massive sentence for cannabis trafficking. After his release from jail he was shot and ended up in the protection of associates of the McCarthy- Dundon gang in the UK as he recovered, a set up that was a huge drain on what finances he had left. He eventually moved back to Spain where he once owned a number of properties as well as the pub, The Judges Chambers. The text asking for people to give cash to Gilligan There he has been low level street dealing and was arrested when police discovered a mail order cannabis and tablet operation he was running. Despite a short time in custody he was able to secure bail and all but beat those charges. He recorded a lengthy documentary interview after his release insisting he had nothing to do with the murder of Veronica Guerin. However last December his luck ran out and he was arrested following a lengthy surveillance operation by police investigating a pink cocaine factory. While Spanish magistrates tend to be lenient on cannabis charges there is no such soft approach to synthetic drug dealing. Gilligan's visitors have been few at Forcalent prison where he was held over Christmas, New Year and throughout this summer. Sharon Oliver had visited him initially but it is understood that she suspected he had been with another woman in her absence and while he was living in her home. John Gilligan speaking to reporter Nicola Tallant after a court appearance While the quantity of drugs involved in the investigation was massive ledgers that Gilligan was keeping suggest he was only a small cog in the wheel, collecting small debts and even street dealing and delivering small consignments himself for a larger group. The begging text began to circulate earlier this summer and those who received it were urged to send it on to their own WhatsApp groups. However, Gilligan already needed to pay off his debts from previous court appearances before he can even consider applying for bail. The Spanish police operation leading to Gilligan's December 18 arrest was named Operation Overlord and involved officers from elite Spanish police anti-drug units, including one person based in the province of Murcia south of Alicante as well as the UK's National Crime Agency. Drugs (above) and (below) a gun seized from Gilligan's property by Spanish police . A spokesman for the National Police in Murcia said in the force's first statement after Gilligan's arrest, where he wasn't named but was described as a member of the Irish mafia, that: 'The National Police has dismantled a synthetic drugs lab. 'Nine people have been arrested, including the leader of the criminal organisation, a man belonging to the Irish mafia who had expanded his criminal activities to several parts of the eastern Spanish coast and continually changed home between the provinces of Murcia and Alicante to hinder his localisation.' According to reports in the Spanish media, police also recovered hand-written notes left behind by Gilligan in which he detailed his various drug deals and begs for cash 'to pay my bills'. Bizarrely, Gilligan appears to have put himself in legal difficulty by leaving exact notes about his drug-dealing operation. In the notes, the gangster had allegedly jotted down the details of some of his customers and other dealers, in code. He refers to a 'Jaime, 777, EBBS, Villa, John, Taxi Mark' while keeping note of payments made, the quantities of drugs delivered, and even agreements with other drug traffickers. 'Hi, Bud. Have a new deal for you,' reads a page in one of the notebooks seized by police. Along with ketamine he was 'getting for 170 euros an ounce here' there is an offer 'to you now 10oz for 1000'. John Gilligan is banged up in Spanish prison Today's News in 90 Seconds - 17 August He also has 'pink Tusi' also known as pink cocaine, that he was getting for 28g for 280 euros, adding 'they in 1 gram bag'. 'I can give you 3 ounces and 9 1kg bags for 400 euros,' he offers. Total cash for this deal is '1400.00' but the man who was once behind multi-million drug deals angles for a quick sale, adding: 'I need cash to pay my bills ASAP.' However, he adds 'if cant (sic), cool, bud.' Spanish police claim they recovered 'numerous chemical products, precursors and laboratory material or equipment was discovered' during the raids. They stated this confirmed 'the existence of a criminal organisation dedicated to establishing clandestine synthetic drug laboratories in our territory'. During the operation, the National Police seized more than 16 kilograms of Tusi; 2.5 kilos of cocaine; 540 litres of 'precursors'; 93.5 kilograms of cutting substances for the production of synthetic drugs and a 75-litre drum of methylamine. The seized drugs could have reached a value on the illicit market 'of between four and eight million euros.'
The Journal
3 days ago
- The Journal
Financial executive awarded €22k over unfair dismissal for posting sexually explicit messages
A FINANCIAL SERVICES executive who was fired after posting sexually explicit messages from the mobile phones of two female colleagues has been awarded €22,500 in compensation for unfair dismissal. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ruled that the procedures used to dismiss the operation's manager were flawed and unfair 'from beginning to end.' The WRC found that the company's conclusion that the manager's conduct was 'highly severe sexual harassment' was 'excessive' and 'not proportional.' It heard evidence that the manager had taken the phone from the desk of a colleague – known as Employee A – on January 30, 2024 and sent a sexually explicit WhatsApp message to her husband. The WRC ruled that the identities of the parties should not be disclosed due to the potential collateral damage to the company and its staff. The manager owned up to sending the message as a joke after the woman discovered it on her phone. She asked the company's chief executive for a meeting to discuss what had happened as both she and her husband had found the message 'vulgar and disgusting' and was worried other content from her phone had been accessed. The WRC heard the operations manager was suspended after a meeting on February 6, 2024 after she had submitted a formal complaint. Another female colleague, known as Employee B. who attended the meeting said afterwards: 'I can't believe this is happening again.' The company's chief executive told the WRC that he had forgotten there had been a previous incident in September 2022 when the manager had accessed Employee B's phone while she was on holidays. Employee B had left her phone at work to allow the chief executive to access a banking app to authorise transactions. Employee B noticed two sexually offensive messages appeared to have been posted by her on one of her social media accounts as well as a message to one of her friends saying 'Hi, how are you?' The WRC heard the manager admitted he had posted the messages as a joke when Employee B contacted him to express concern that her phone had been hacked. Employee B said that her husband and father who were on holiday with her were also disgusted by the messages. While Employee B did not accept it was a joke, she acknowledged she did not take the matter further at the time. The WRC heard that the manager admitted he had done 'two stupid things' to an external investigator hired to examine the complaints. However, he claimed Employee B was conflicted by having used what she heard at the meeting on February 6, 2024 to make her own complaint and its inclusion was unfair. 'In the heat of the moment, I made two bad choices' he told an appeals committee and claimed his actions were in line with 'jokes or stuff' between staff. He claimed the use of the term 'sexual harassment' was grossly untrue and said he felt like 'the fall guy' for widespread sexual comments and innuendo between staff. Advertisement The manager – who was regarded as 'number 2' in the company – asked the appeals committee not to let 'two moments of madness' define him when he had been portrayed as 'some kind of evil predator.' His counsel, Michael Kinsey BL, claimed the process used to dismiss him was 'pre-judged, biased and procedurally flawed.' However, counsel for the financial services company, Lauren Tennyson BL, maintained the manager had been dismissed for gross misconduct due to findings of sexual harassment. Ms Tennyson said the sanction of dismissal was fair and proportionate and 'an inherently reasonable decision.' In her ruling, WRC adjudication officer, Catherine Byrne, observed that the manager had submitted no evidence to support his contention that sexual banter was commonplace among staff. Ms Byrne acknowledged that any reasonable employer would regard the manager's action in relation to Employee A as 'grossly inoffensive and irresponsible.' The WRC adjudicator said Employee B had dealt with the manager's conduct with maturity and forbearance over his use of her phone and had put him on notice that she would not tolerate such action in future. Ms Byrne said it was reasonable for the two women to have been angry, embarrassed, shocked and disappointed by his conduct which she agreed had met the definition of sexual harassment under the company's policy. 'He made unwanted sexual remarks which were offensive and degrading and which had no regard for the dignity of his colleagues,' she observed. However, Ms Byrne, she claimed the finding that what happened was a high severity of sexual harassment was 'too extreme.' She stressed that she did not wish to minimise the impact of the two incidents. Ms Byrne pointed out that the incident with Employee B was originally considered 'done and dusted.' She also observed that the chief executive had not taken any action to address the manager's conduct back in September 2022. Ms Byrne said it was difficult to understand why the chief executive had not 'at the very least' had a conversation with the complainant at the time about his conduct even in the absence of a formal complaint. 'His failure to do so lends some credibility to the complainant's assertion that there was a culture of doing nothing about unacceptable sexual banter,' she remarked. Ms Byrne claimed the retrieval of the earlier incident to bolster the case for dismissal was unfair, given the second incident was sufficiently serious to warrant consideration on its own. Ms Byrne said it was not open to the independent investigator to reach a conclusion regarding the scale of the offence or the severity of the sexual harassment. She claimed the disciplinary panel had relied on the investigator's opinion and failed in their duty to consider the manager's defence, while he also had not been allowed to appeal the investigation report. 'It is my view that a reasonable, prudent and wise employer may have reached a different decision and the complainant may have gone on to make a positive contribution to the organisation,' said Ms Byrne. Although the manager suffered €74,500 in lost earnings over the two years following his dismissal, the WRC limited the award of compensation to €22,5500 – representing 30% of the total – as he had contributed significantly to the decision to dismiss him. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
