Dec.28, 2009

A CONVICTED Irish drugs and weapons trafficker has been acquitted of charges including possession of weapons and false documents and money laundering in the Netherlands.

Judges at Amsterdam Court cleared Peter Mitchell, a native of Summerhill in Dublin’s inner city, on a Christmas Eve ruling that serious crime squad detectives who arrested him on the pretext of a traffic control offence had exceeded their powers under the road traffic Act.

Judges also ordered that €8,500 and a expensive watch seized as alleged proceeds of crime be returned to Mr Mitchell.

Mr Mitchell had been in custody in Amsterdam since June 25th last. He was arrested following a car chase through the city.

The Dutch public prosecutor had called on the court to sentence Mr Mitchell to 15 months on the weapons, false documents and money laundering counts with a further four months for dangerous driving. But he was cleared of all charges except that of dangerous driving, for which he was ordered to pay €500.

The accused, who had been using a false driving licence in the Netherlands, was suspended from driving for four months.

The finding that police had illegally attempted to use the road traffic Act to apprehend the suspect, on the basis of suspicions and not a traffic violation, resulted in the counts of possession of false documents – a passport and driving licence – being struck out as inadmissible.

Mr Mitchell and a number of other foreign nationals were watched as they came and went from an estate agency believed to be hiring apartments to hoodlums.

Mr Mitchell is a close friend of Brian Meehan, a former member of John Gilligan’s gang and who is serving a life sentence in connection with the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin. When stopped, Mr Mitchell handed police a false passport. A second man in the car produced a passport that belonged to Mr Mitchell’s brother.

They were asked to step out of the car but within seconds Mr Mitchell had pulled his companion back inside and sped off, pursued by detectives. During the chase a cyclist and pedestrians were almost hit as Mr Mitchell drove the car up one-way streets at speeds of up to 100km/h.

Two guns were found by passers-by along the escape route. It was alleged that the accused had thrown them from the car.

Leading Dutch criminal lawyer Leon van Kleef, who represented Mr Mitchell, convinced judges that the police had erred by using the road traffic Act for purposes other than traffic violations, and that the DNA on the weapons, magazines and bullets showed profiles in addition to that of Mr Mitchell or a close relative.

He also submitted that €8,500 confiscated from his client and alleged to come from crime was honestly earned from the sale of a Range Rover sold by Mr Mitchell for €35,000 in Spain.

In 2004 Mr Mitchell was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment by Amsterdam Criminal Court for possession of cocaine heroin and weapons, believed to have been part of shipments into Ireland and Britain.