A veteran drug trafficker has been arrested for allegedly biting a lump of flesh off a man’s face in a pub on Tuesday.
Crime figure James Powell is suspected of viciously beating an innocent man during a horror five-minute attack which left his victim looking like ‘the Elephant Man’.
It is believed the local man suffered horrific facial injuries as a result of a number of vicious bites to his forehead and cheeks just after 9.30 last Tuesday.
Gardai regarded mobster Powell (38), as a major figure in Kerry’s criminal underworld and he has previously been convicted for drug-dealing, assault and counterfeit offences.
The career criminal has long-terms links to Limerick’s McCarthy-Dundon gang.
A source has told the Sunday World that when Powell was arrested in Tralee, Co. Kerry, he was found with more than €3,000 in cash in his pockets.
The source said: “The injuries are horrific, Powell was very much the worse for wear when he was arrested.”
He was not charged and a file will now be sent to the DPP.
Last year, Powell was released after serving a four-year sentence for selling counterfeit DVDs, contraband cigarettes and downers and a separate two-and-a-half year sentence for drug offences.
Gardai also believe Powell was behind a massive €500,000 mephedrone shipment seized in June 2011. A total of 10 kilos of mephedrone and 8,000 ecstasy tablets were seized during a raid on a house in Tralee.
Last year, legal secretary Fiona Dineen was given a three-year sentence in Tralee Circuit Court after pleading guilty to charges in connection to the drugs seizure – one of the biggest in the history of Co. Kerry.
Gardai believe Dineen – who has no previous convictions – was used by Powell’s Tralee-based mob to store the drugs because she had no criminal record.
After Dineen was caught red-handed, Powell was arrested by gardai, but refused to answer questions about the drugs.
He was never charged in connection with the drugs seizure.
In May 2012, Powell was jailed for two-and-a-half years after he was caught with €5,000 worth of valium-type tablets. Powell – who was also caught with €8,000 in cash – had been spotted buying the tablets off a member of a notorious West Dublin gang.
It was not the first time he was jailed for his involvement in the drugs trade.
In 2003, he was jailed for four years in connection with a seizure of 30 kilos of cannabis – with an estimated street value of more than €250,000.
Powell – who has 23 previous convictions – is said to be “extremely close” to a notorious Limerick mobster who is the chief suspect for the murder of bouncer Brian Fitzgerald.
In 2012, he was jailed for three years after he was caught with 49,240 contraband cigarettes, pirate DVDs, fake Xbox games and DVD-making equipment, following a garda raid in June 2009.
The cigarettes were estimated to be worth a total of €20,508 and did not contain any revenue stamps. During garda interviews, Powell accepted the cigarettes were his, but claimed he was selling them to pay off a drugs debt.
However, this was not accepted by gardai, who told Tralee Circuit Court that he was using them to fund his lifestyle.
Powell also has convictions for burglary, common assault and threatening and abusive behaviour.
