Pubdate: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 Source: Irish Examiner (Ireland) Copyright: Examiner Publications Ltd, 2000 Contact: http://www.examiner.ie/ Authors: Barry Roche and Donal Hickey DRUG LORD'S POUNDS 1M MANSION SEIZED A luxury mansion used for trafficking drugs from North Africa to Europe has been seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau. The pounds 1 million home in Sneem, County Kerry is owned by Jan Hendrik Ijpelaar, a notorious and wealthy Dutch trafficker in ecstasy and cannabis. The property, featuring tennis courts, a swimming pool, stables and an accompanying island, was used by Ijpelaar, 53, to land drugs from North Africa before shipping them on to Northern Europe. The High Court granted the Criminal Assets Bureau an order for possession and sale of the pounds 1 million mansion and island. Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan appointed Barry Galvin, legal officer of the Bureau, power to take possession of the property and sell it on the open market. It consists of Clashnacree House, Derryquinn, Sneem, Co Kerry, set on 20 acres and an island off the Sneem inlet, purchased in 1991 by Jan Hendrik Ijpelaar, a Dutch national, of Dordtselaan, Rotterdam. CAB's Chief Supt Felix McKenna told the High Court that Ijpelaar had been a leader of organised crime in the Netherlands. He was involved in the importing and exporting of ecstasy and cannabis and had no other legitimate source of income. He was convicted and jailed for six years in Holland in 1992 for drug trafficking after a major investigation by Dutch police. They succeeded in linking him to a factory which illegally manufactured amphetamines and he served five years in jail. He was arrested by Dutch police when, after moving to Ireland in 1992, he returned to the Netherlands for one day. The 20 acre coastal property -- which overlooks beautiful Kenmare Bay - -- includes a stunning island off the Sneem inlet. Ijpelaar bought the six bedroom mansion for pounds 300,000 from another Dutch national, Ernest Weeland, while on a visit in 1992. Gardai believe he bought the property to use as a base for importing cannabis from North Africa into Northern Europe. They believe that boats would have been able to moor on the island and unload their cargo for transfer to the continent. Yesterday Chief Supt McKenna told Mr Justice Finnegan that Ijpelaar had gone to great lengths to conceal the purchase of the house. It had been allegedly bought with the aid of a fake mortgage, taken out through a company called Howard Financial Services. The company which had been based in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean had since been struck off, he said. Ijpelaar was released from a Dutch jail in June 1997 but he has only visited his luxury Sneem hideaway once since then. He stopped visiting the house when he discovered that CAB officers were keeping it under close surveillance. The house will be sold off by public auction -- possibly in a number of lots -- with the auction likely to take place in September. Yesterday's seizure is but the latest in a series of moves by CAB against a number of foreign criminals based in Ireland. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake