The Iceman: The Rise and Fall of a Crime Lord (21 page)

Seconds.

So did you look in the boxes?

No.

And he just drove away?

He just drove away.

Can you give us an age for him?

Mid to late twenties.

What happened?

I loaded the fruit not far from Rijnsburg, maybe twenty minutes or so. Started loading the fruit there and I loaded some more on the way down the road and then went down to Belgium and loaded the lorry more.

It’s fair to say the rest of your load was bona fide?

Yes. It was all fruits and loaded right to the top. I had intended to put the boxes in among the load but I’d that much fruit, I kept them in the cab.

How many boxes?

Five.

How would you describe the boxes?

About three-foot, taped-up cardboard boxes with parcel tape.

What colour of tape?

Brown.

Were they heavy?

Reasonably heavy, yeah.

So then what happened?

I load the fruit, head down for the train [the Eurotunnel freight service] at Calais.

Did you receive any other communication?

He rang me a few times en route to see that everything was OK.

When you were coming back?

Yeah. I was on the way down from Holland down into Belgium.

After you collected the boxes?

Yeah.

Who phoned you?

J.

What did he ask you?

Just asked if everything was OK.

This J on the phone is the same J that you met face-to-face?

Yeah.

Definitely the same J?

Yeah.

So he phoned you a few times?

Yeah. I went down for the train and I was waved through the X-ray machine to check for immigrants and things like that. Drove on in and I was coming down towards the British Customs. The lassie said to go over to the tent on the right-hand side which I thought was Customs but it turned out was Immigration. They closed the doors behind me and put sensors on the lorry and the sensors showed a pulse so they opened the lorry and the guy said there was no way anybody’s in there, it’s full to the roof with fruit. So they closed it up and one of the other guys checked the cab but he was more interested in the fact that I was from Ireland ’cos he had been stationed there when he was in the army. He was more interested in talking about Ireland than checking the thing. I can say I was quite relieved.

You must have been a worried man?

I was. I was touching cloth.

What was the date of that?

That was the first weekend in May of 2003.

What happened after you got clear of your wee scare?

I got on the train and got off and drove up towards Dumfries which would have run me into late on Monday night.

What happened?

I’d been in touch with Frank Gallagher.

You’d been in touch with him?

Yeah. He’d been in touch with me, sorry. He rang me, asked me what time I’d be round about Dumfries and he arranged to meet me at the Shell services just at the Dumfries roundabout there. But when I got there, there were three lorries parked so we couldn’t change anything over . . . So I followed him. He was driving a black Audi at the time and every lay-by we came to someone was parked in it. So we were two or three miles up the road and I pulled into a lay-by, left enough space for him to drive the car up the inside of the lorry and I just handed the boxes from the lorry to him. He threw them into the car and disappeared.

Did he say anything?

He said, ‘You OK?’

That was it?

That was it. That was the last time I heard for six weeks. I just carried on working for Kelly’s. Obviously I got paid, arranged by my mate in Ireland to collect the money for me.

What money was that?

£20,000.

You got paid £20,000 for that run? That one run for those boxes?

Yeah.

How did you come into possession of that money?

I went to Ireland and collected it.

Was it cash?

It was cash.

What did you do with the money?

Paid quite a few bills of the hotel and sort of got myself out of debt. Made the hotel reasonably presentable for selling.

What was the name of the hotel again?

Queen’s Hotel, Colmonell.

Where did that £20,000 come from?

It came from J and Frank Gallagher.

How do you know that?

’Cos my mate told me it came from him. He went and collected it from him.

Did you know where he went to collect it?

Glasgow.

Were you with him?

No.

So that’s done and dusted now, long gone. What happened then?

I just carried on working for Kelly’s for the next few weeks. I took two weeks off ’cos we had sold the hotel and I got a wee flat in Ballantrae and I wasn’t due to start back with Kelly’s until Saturday 28 June. But on the Monday I received a call from Kelly’s. I never done a midweek run for Kelly’s before. On the Monday I received a call from Kelly’s asking me if I could take some prawns to Le Havre in France on the Tuesday. He said, if I got myself down to Stranraer for the 5.15 ferry on Tuesday morning, I would go across with Ken, the transport manager. So I agreed to do that and, while I was away, my mate from Ireland rang me and asked me to do the run for Kelly’s first thing on Tuesday and he said would I be interested in bringing some drugs back – ‘Would you be interested in bringing some stuff back?’

For him
?

For the boys in Glasgow.

Did he mention the boys in Glasgow?

Aye.

What names?

J and Frank.

So he’s acting as a sort of . . .

Go-between.

Was this guy [Ken] Munro still with you at this stage?

No.

So you then travelled abroad with these prawns?

Yeah. I drove down to Newhaven in Sussex and got the 5.15 ferry over to Dieppe from Newhaven.

Was there any reason for you going to Newhaven?

It was just where Kelly’s told me to go.

When did you get this phone call from your friend?

On the Monday.

What day is this we’re talking about now?

Wednesday, late Tuesday evening, arrived in Dieppe on Wednesday night. I rang Kelly’s. They told me to go up to Rijnsburg to load flowers. So I drove up more or less non-stop, apart from a break for tea and statutory breaks and things like that. More or less just drove straight . . . well I did stop, not too far from Rijnsburg and collected five trolleys there. That’s where my problems really started ’cos four trolleys fit across the fridge together, the fifth trolley was rolling about. I tried to secure the trolley and J rang me to see what was keeping me. I said I would be at Rijnsburg about 10 o’clock or so. And it was midnight and I was still trying to get the load secure. I said, ‘Look, I really think you should cancel this load.’ He said, ‘The guy is sitting there waiting for you. It has to come.’

So why did you want to cancel it?

’Cos everything was going wrong. I had an awful bad feeling about it, which turned out to be correct. This was Thursday 26 June.

Did he put any pressure on you to go through with it?

He said you’re going to cause a hell of a lot of trouble for me, which means a hell of a lot of trouble for yourself, if you don’t go ahead with it.

Do you remember what time that call came into your phone?

Midnight.

What phone?

The Siemens. I managed to tie the loose trolley, just to get me over to Rijnsburg and I parked on the road into Rijnsburg.

Same place as before?

Yes. Same place and the guy pulled up. This time in a black Mercedes.

The same person?

The same person. Dutch plates again. And he handed me the two boxes which I kept in the cab with me overnight. I had to go and park at Kelly’s place in Rijnsburg and wait for the guy to load me out with flowers so he loaded me out and I went to collect more trolleys to load me out completely. I loaded them. I was late for the ferry. I had to get the ferry from the Hook into Harwich and by the time I got the load, it was about ten to seven. I was starting to panic as I had these two boxes. I was driving the wee Mann lorry with these two boxes sitting conspicuously in the cab.

What lorry was that you were in?

The Mann, the one I was arrested in.

You were not happy with the boxes?

No. I wanted to put them into the load so, after I loaded, I went round to the fruit market and parked there. I put two boxes in amongst the flowers. I got to the ferry about twenty past seven and it was still standing there. I got off at Harwich about half ten.

So was there any communication after you took possession of the boxes?

Not until I got to England.

What was it?

When I got off the ferry, I was last off and Customs and Excise were standing checking some other lorries. They had the big X-ray machine as well. But they just ignored me completely and waved me on. On the ferry, I destroyed the SIM card of my phone.

Why did you do that?

In case something happened.

Did somebody tell you to do that?

No. It was just a thing I done and, on the way up, I rang Frank. I had taken a note of Frank’s number from him ringing me. I rang Frank to say I was through Customs and I was on my way up the road. Little did I know I was getting followed by the Regional Crime. And I told him roughly what time I’d be at Dumfries. So I drove up and stopped at Ferry-bridge Services [near Leeds], had a bite to eat and a cup of tea. I then rang Frank and I said it’s usually about three hours from here to Dumfries. We got in touch back and forward. He rang me and I rang him.

So most of the communication that day was just you and Frank?

Yeah. I pulled into the services, the Shell services at Dumfries. He said he would come down there to meet me and take me to the industrial estate ’cos I’d never been there before. At the roundabout at the services, I went in convoy with him into the industrial estate and then we handed over. Then all hell broke loose.

It’s fair to say to those who will be listening to this tape that that’s the stage when you and Francis Gallagher were apprehended?

Yeah.

So have they ever asked you to bring anything else into the country?

Yes. At one time I took a lorry up to Kilsyth. It was just a unit, no cab and left it up there. Frank picked me up to run me back to Ayr. He dropped me back at Ayr.

Can you remember what date?

Mid June. Shortly before I got arrested. Maybe two weeks before that on a Friday about lunchtime. There was a wee burger van outside and I was starving. I had a wee burger while I was waiting on him coming.

What vehicle did he pick you up in?

An Audi – a black Audi.

What happened after that?

He asked me would I be interested in bringing some guns in, handguns. Just one box. He mentioned the figure £10,000 for bringing the box in.

Was this for him?

For him and J. He said J asked me to ask you would you be interested in bringing some guns in?

What was your response to that?

An Irishman with guns just doesn’t really mix. If I was caught with guns, it’s immediately regarded as a terrorist offence rather than a civil offence. But I said I would probably have a think about it.

Did he say this to you in the vehicle?

Yeah – in the car.

Did he say if he was going back to report to anybody?

He said he’d get back to J and let him know what the score is and we could talk about it again. Maybe up the price if I was prepared to do it.

Is it your understanding that he was acting as a go-between for J?

From what I can gather, Frank and J were more or less on a par with each other.