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Haulier hands murdered drug dealer's assets to ARA
Page 8
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ONE OF Northern Ireland s most colourful hauliers has voluntarily paid £45,000 to the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) after an investigation into the finances of a murdered Loyalist drug dealer.
The £45,000 had been loaned to Ignatius Geddis of Geddis Transport by Jim Johnston, who was a member of the Red Hand Commando organisation.
Geddis also handed over an I suzu Trooper 4x4 to the ARA, acknowledging that it had belonged to Johnston.
Johnston was shot dead three years ago, allegedly by the Loyalist Volunteer Force.
The ARA played down the significance of the payment and said there was no suggestion of involvement in money laundering. GedoisS solicitor, Brian Spears, stresses that his client had fully co-operated with the ARA, and that the case was in a different category to other ARA investigations.
Geddis had previously hit the headlines after he infuriated residents in one of Northern Ireland's most exclusive residential areas which was next door to his former yard. Angry neighbours had described the piles of waste stored there as a "blot on the landscape".
Over the years, questions about the condition of the site were asked in Westminster and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Last year, Geddis sold the site for approximately E5m and relocated his business to a smaller yard near Bangor.