The High Court in Dublin has been informed of a local drug dealer who has been making thousands monthly from letting out properties identified last month as proceeds of crime. The judge, Mr Alexander Owens, granted the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) access to the rent money which would have been paid to David Waldron, a man the judge acknowledged has been deeply involved in illegal drug trades in Dublin since 2000.
It was confirmed by Judge Owens, based on Garda intelligence, that David Waldron and Christopher Waldron, his brother, have been high-ranking figures in the procurement and distribution of regulated narcotics in the Cabra region after the murder of ‘The Don’ Eamon Dunne in April 2010.
Last month, Owens made orders, according to the 1996 Proceeds of Crime Act, classifying three properties owned by Waldron — located in Dublin’s Cabra, Wexford’s Gorey, and Kildare’s Leixlip — as being linked to or derived from criminal proceeds.
The court was informed this week by Grainne O’Neill, the CAB’s lawyer, that Waldron’s estranged wife, Charlene, currently resides in the Cabra property, while Waldron himself lives in Spain.
It was also revealed to the court that the Gorey property is rented by Egidijus Bubnys, 31, for a monthly payment of €3,750 under a 40-year agreement. The Lithuanian national also manages the lease of the three-bedroom property in Leixlip’s River Forest, and has sublet it to thirteen individuals. The court was told he earns monthly rent between €5,800 and €6,200, out of which €2,700 is moved to Waldron’s Spanish bank account.
Though not present at court, nor implicated in CAB’s case, Bubnys’ name was mentioned. Judge Owens has declared that any rent due to Waldron from the properties should be redirected to the CAB’s receiver. He also instructed that Bubnys be informed of the court’s decision and that no new occupants are permitted to move into these properties. The case has been postponed to a date next month.
Mr Justice Owens previously alluded to the luxurious international trips that David and Charlene Waldron indulged in, which he believed were too extravagant to be maintained from legitimate income, leading up to his incarceration in March of 2015. Such affairs started up again upon David’s release, with the pair infrequently accessing their banking accounts for daily living costs.
It was suggested that Waldron’s principal earner was drug trafficking, with the judge asserting that Ms Waldron must have been cognizant of her finances’ illicit origins.
The Criminal Assets Bureau independently secured Christopher Waldron’s 61 Killala Road residence in Cabra, Dublin, after effectual High Court rulings affirming its procurement and that of certain luxury timepieces with money obtained from Cabra and Finglas’s drug trade.