ONE of Ireland's most notorious criminals, John Gilligan, has been remanded back into custody in a Belfast court over money laundering charges.
The 66-year-old was arrested last month at Belfast International Airport as he attempted to board a plane with €23,000 in a suitcase.
He appeared at Antrim Magistrates Court this morning via video link accused of attempting to remove criminal property.
Gilligan, wearing an open necked, light blue shirt, confirmed his identity and that he could see and hear the court, telling the clerk “yes I can, thank you very much.”
His lawyer told the district judge that his client was seeking the shortest possible period of remand as he wanted to see momentum maintained in the case.
The judge said he was unable to deal with Mr Gilligan's case because he had been a partner in a firm that represented the accused in a previous case at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.
As such, the judge said he was not going not rule on the application for a shorter remand.
He told the court that he would ask a judge in Coleraine to deal with the case.
It was adjourned for one week.
Gilligan spent 17 years in prison for the trafficking of commercial quantities of cannabis resin.
He was released on October 15th. 2013.
In 2002, Gilligan was tried for and acquitted of the murder of the investigative journalist Veronica Guerin,
In the months before her killing, she was doing investigative reporting about Gilligan's involvement in the illegal recreational drugs trade in Ireland.
