The Garda National Drug Unit (GNDU) were in the midst of an undercover operation when they received a tip-off in 2008 that the Irish cartel were smuggling drugs into the country disguised as shipments of pasta.
Officers watched four vehicles arrive at the Toughers Garage in Newbridge, County Kildare, before two of the vehicles departed a short while later to exchange 500kg of cannabis resin (valued at €3.5million) off the N7 road.
The GNDU decided to swoop shortly after 7am when the exchange was completed and the four men involved in the exchange were arrested by Gardai and brought in for questioning.
Back at the garage, a further 1,000kg of cannabis resin was discovered (worth €7m) and the whole operation was brought to a crashing halt.
During questioning, one Eddie van Boxtel admitted to detectives he had already earned €10,000 from moving drugs. A month later, he received bail and was due to appear in court in July 2008. When he failed to appear, a warrant was issued for his arrest – but he was already on his way out of Ireland.
Exactly 14 years earlier, Van Boxtel became the first man to save a penalty from Eric Cantona during a friendly match between Premier League champions Manchester United and Dundalk United.
Originally born in Amsterdam, Van Boxtel was raised in Ballymun – a rough working-class area of Dublin.
As a 15-year-old, he fulfilled his teenage dreams by moving to Leeds United. Already a youth international with 32 caps between Schoolboy and Youth level, he seemed set to escape the perils and distractions which had ensnared several of his friends growing up.
Whilst with the Whites, he participated in an international youth tournament in Germany and was named ‘Goalkeeper of the Tournament’. However, the move soured when he fell out with a coach at Elland Road.
After three years in the proverbial wilderness, Van Boxtel joined Dundalk in 1991 as a 20-year-old when Turlough O’Connor snapped him up to provide cover for first-team regular Alan O’Neill.
It was during United’s Tour of Ireland and subsequent decision to take part in Gino Lawless’ testimonial which provided the young shot-stopper (known as ‘The Boxer’) his moment in the spotlight.
Although Dundalk raced into a 2-0 lead at a packed Oriel Park, a tap in from Mark Hughes put the Premier League champions back in with a shout and it seemed as though the writing was on the wall when Paul Ince was felled in the box at the start of half time.
Cantona took the spot kick, but Van Boxtel won the mental battle with the maverick Frenchman and made an astounding save to his left. It was the first penalty Cantona missed in his career and earned Van Boxtel a mention in his autobiography.
However, despite winning Dundalk’s ‘Player of the Year’ the following season, Van Boxtel’s career eventually petered away into mediocrity, as spells at Galway United, Drogheda United, Monaghan United and Bray Wanderers followed before his retirement at age 35.
An active gambler, Van Boxtel used almost all of the money he earned from his job as a taxi driver at the bookies. His other form of income came from hiding drugs in his taxi and distributing them across Dublin.
According to ‘The Cartel’, written by Stephen Breen and Owen Conlon, the Kinahan cartel used drivers like Van Boxtel to move products around the city without Gardai being alerted.
By June 2006 Van Boxtel earned a promotion within the organisation. He was tasked with finding individuals who could fraudulently obtain genuine passports so as to move freely across Europe.
The end game was to be able to ship literally tonnes of drugs and firearms into Ireland and the UK using a scam food exportation company ‘Foods Almacen General’ working out of Estepona, Spain.
Once the individual had obtained their fraudulent passport, they would open a bank account using said passport and rent an apartment so as to get a utility bill. Using the proof of address and the passport, an industrial unit in Dunboyne was registered as the location of ‘MK Foods’.
According to Gardai, 16 containers of ‘pasta’ were delivered from Foods Almacen General in Spain to MK Foods between October 2006 and September 2007.
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A second bogus food exportation company was created in August 2007 called ‘Euro Express Foods’ based in Murcia and Van Boxtel was tasked with finding another individual to apply for a second passport.
They repeated the scam and registered ‘TS Foods’ at Companies House in Dublin, with Van Boxtel earning gainful employment as managing director.
Investigators learned six containers of ‘Romero pasta’ and ‘spaghetti’ were shipped to TS Foods from Euro Express Foods between October 2007 and January 2008. In total, 22 containers arrived in Ireland.
It was estimated by detectives that the cartel had sent 22 tonnes of cannabis resin during that three-month period, worth €132m. But it was at this point law enforcement dealt their significant strike to the operation.
Following his arrest in February 2008, Van Boxtel fled the country and was reportedly staying at a cartel safehouse in Liverpool, before returning to his country of origin in Amsterdam.
During his five years in exile, he changed his name to Thomas Anthony Fitzgerald, grew a beard, changed his hairstyle, lost a dramatic amount of weight and covered a tattoo of his wife’s name on his shoulder with a Celtic cross.
In August 2013, with a new girlfriend, the shot-stopper returned to Ireland and was convinced authorities would not recognise him with his new identity and new appearance.
But a tip-off at the start of 2014 put Gardai on full alert and they arrested Van Boxtel for a second time near his new home in west Dublin, fearing he could flee for a second time.
Despite desperate attempts to convince the officials he was in fact Thomas Fitzgerald, Van Boxtel was charged once again with possession of €3.5m worth of cannabis resin with intent to supply.
On the morning of January 2015, the former Leeds United teenage prodigy pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to supply and received a ten-year sentence, with the last two-and-a-half years suspended.
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