James McCann (drugs trafficker)

James Joseph "Jim" McCann (born 25 March 1939 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a figure who has been linked with Irish republicanism, drug trafficking[1] and the smuggling of arms to the Provisional IRA in the 1970s.[2]

McCann has dual UK and Irish citizenship, and uses an Irish passport. In 1971 he escaped from Belfast's Crumlin Road Prison, where he was awaiting trial for a petrol-bombing at Queen's University.[3] Prominent drugs trafficker Howard Marks was involved with McCann for several years in smuggling hashish from Afghanistan through Irish ports, specifically Shannon Airport, to the UK via Milford Haven, Wales.[4] He was imprisoned at various times in Germany, France, Canada, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on drug- or political violence-related matters.[5] He was described as, "possibly the most effective arms supplier" for the IRA in the 1970s.[2] The Provisional IRA reportedly punished him for his involvement in the drug trade with a beating. He was arrested in the Irish Republic in 1979 on a drugs trafficking charge and held in Portlaoise Prison, but was not convicted.

On 2 March 1991, McCann was arrested in a hotel in Dusseldorf, Germany, under the name of Robert Gustave Baehr. Identified by his fingerprints as James McCann, he was charged with being a member of a criminal gang, with smuggling 1,528 kilogrammes of hashish from Morocco to England in March 1988, and with possession of two false passports and small quantities of cannabis and cocaine.[6] In December 1992, after 21 months on remand, McCann was found guilty of participating in "a criminal gang whose purpose was to traffic in considerable amounts of narcotics" and of possession of false passports and quantities of cocaine and cannabis. McCann was sentenced to three years for the drugs trafficking charge and six months each on the other charges, six of which were concurrent. As he had already served almost half the 42-month sentence in detention, he was released shortly afterwards and traveled to the Netherlands.[7]

McCann has used several aliases in the course of his career, the most well-known being "James Kennedy", and has sometimes been known as "Kennedy-McCann" or "Kennedy McCann".

References

  1. ^ Marks, Howard (1996). Mr Nice. London: Vintage Books. ISBN 9780099542155. 
  2. ^ a b "Provos used drug runner to import arms". Irish Independent. 26 August 2001. http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/provos-used-drug-runner-to--import-arms-510043.html. Retrieved 2010-01-12. 
  3. ^ "On the run, but business booms for top criminals". The Sunday Business Post. 5 January 2003. http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2003/01/05/story130733528.asp. Retrieved 2010-01-12. 
  4. ^ Howard Marks interview
  5. ^ The Day - Aug 27, 1979 "Big Pot Haul in Ireland" (AP). "The fourth suspect, identified by police sources as James McCann, was arrested later in connection with the case. McCann escaped from a prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland eight years ago while awaiting trial on a bombing charge."
  6. ^ Irish Independent, Friday May 17, 1991. Front page and P 10. Irish Times, Saturday 18 May, 1991, P 3.
  7. ^ Sunday World, January 17, 1993, P 8.