Described as a “stunning family home in one of Tralee’s most desirable locations”, the house has been advertised for an asking price of €795,000.
The Kerry businessman who was involved with the largest crystal meth seizure in the history of the State was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the non-jury Special Criminal Court last year.
Garden centre owner Nathan McDonnell’s trial had heard how he helped the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel move €32million worth of the highly-addictive synthetic drug by storing a machine on his business premises.
He had stored the equipment at his Ballyseedy garden centre and restaurant premises for several months before gardaí, acting on intelligence, swooped on the port of Cork in February 2024 before it could be shipped out of the jurisdiction.
The Special Criminal Court heard the former head of the local chamber of commerce and pillar of the Tralee community had been struggling with debts in his business.
Nathan McDonnell was to be paid €150,000 by an Irish crime gang for storing a large machine containing drugs with a street value of €32.4 million and arranging for its transportation to Australia.
Justice Melanie Greally said, when handing down the sentence, that an aggravating factor was the link with an organised crime gang with international reach, associated with drug trafficking, money laundering and violence on a large scale – as was the vast amount of drugs involved.
During the hearing Mr McDonnell’s financial woes were laid bare and the court was told that the family home was one of the only remaining assets he had any link to. This is now on the market.
The house at Clashaphuca, Ballyroe, Tralee, is described as a “magnificent detached family residence, beautifully positioned within a small cluster of four luxury homes in a most desirable location, minutes from Tralee town centre adjacent to the magnificent Fenit Greenway.
“Standing proud on a mature, private, landscaped 0.2 hectare site, the property enjoys magnificent views. Internally the house extends to C.3800 sq.ft. and offers well proportioned spacious accommodation throughout,” the advert continues.