FEARS are growing again for the safety of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH) directors after a man described as Dublin Jimmy’s closest associate has been seen acting suspiciously outside one of their homes, and was later spotted driving past the company’s offices in Derrylin.
Security has been stepped up around the home of John McCartin in north Leitrim after the man, who was an associate of the late Cyril ‘Dublin Jimmy’ McGuinness, was seen sitting in a parked car outside the QIH director’s home in March.
According to the Irish Independent, the man then drove to Derrylin where he was seen driving past the company’s offices. Described by the paper as the Mr McGuinness’ “suspected bagman”, meaning an agent who collects or distributes the proceeds of illicit activities, the paper reports that there were two further independent sightings of the alleged criminal in the vicinity of Mr McCartin’s home before the Covid-19 lockdown began.
It is understood Garda patrols have now been stepped up outside Mr McCartin’s home, while the Independent reports that security sources have said the threat level against all the QIH directors – John McCartin, Kevin Lunney, Tony Lunney, Liam McCaffrey, and Dara O’Reilly – remains high.
In February it was revealed gardai had contacted QIH directors to warn them the threat to their safety remain “as high as it has ever been.”
Mr McCartin said he was aware of that heightened security threat near his home, with increased Garda activity.
This latest alert comes just a month after an attempted arson at the home of a relative of a QIH director in Derrylin, and months after Kevin Lunney was abducted and tortured in a horrific incident that shocked the country.
Garda sources told the Independent the had no power to arrest the man in question as he had not committed a crime, but said they would be monitoring his movements. It has been reported the man is a former digger driver, originally from the border region, who locals have said had suddenly appeared to become wealthy in recent years.
The Independent reports that because the man has no criminal convictions he had been able to operate “under the radar with McGuinness for several years, helping to launder the millions generated in major rackets including tax fraud, fuel laundering, smuggling, illegal dumping, and theft of plant and farm machinery in Ireland, the UK, and across Europe.” He also owns a number of construction, property and scrap metal companies in the UK.
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