'Two-way merchant' Traynor was working both sides - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie

'Two-way merchant' Traynor was working both sides - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie: "detective team who investigated Veronica Guerin's murder in June 1996 tried very hard to find evidence supporting their belief that John Traynor had set the journalist up for assassination. He knew she was to appear in Naas District Court on the morning she was murdered and the detectives believed he had supplied the information to Gilligan and his gang. But there was no evidence on Traynor, now 62, and claiming to be in ill health.
He had ensured he was out of contact with the gang and there was no mobile phone traffic to link him to the plot and its execution. Traynor had overturned the car he was racing around Mondello Park and was in an ambulance on his way to Naas Hospital when the murder was committed.
Gardai were well aware of Traynor long before the murder. He had come to garda attention on many occasions in respect of cheque and other forms of fraud. He had been a known money launderer for 'The General' Martin Cahill's gang before he swapped allegiances to John Gilligan's mob.
While working for Gilligan, he became involved in buying and selling cars, a common way of laundering drugs money. The people who worked with him in the business had no idea where the cash was coming from.
The detective team were also aware that Traynor had been an informant for a number of other detectives in Dublin. His information was often suspect and always self- serving -- he grassed only on criminals with whom he had no financial involvement and who were, effectively, rivals of whoever he was working for."