Drug dealer John Gilligan has been handed a suspended prison sentence in a Spanish court on drug smuggling charges.
Lawyers for the 71-year-old confirmed a plea bargain had been struck with prosecutors.
Gilligan appeared before Torrevieja Criminal Court accused of smuggling cannabis and powerful sleeping pills into Ireland.
He was also accused of being the owner of a gun found in the back garden of his Costa Blanca home.
He was warned he faced more than eight years in prison, but lawyers reached a deal with prosecutors.
Gilligan will instead face no time behind bars, as he was handed a 22-month suspended sentence and a €14,000 fine.
When asked by the judge if he accepted the deal, Gilligan replied through a translator: "Yes, I am guilty."
Meanwhile, the producer of Confessions of a Crime Boss, which is a new interview series with Gilligan, has defended the programme stressing that "stories like this should be told".
David Harvey told Newstalk Breakfast that the chance to make a show on John Gilligan for Virgin Media was too good an opportunity to miss.
"We made it because we were offered an opportunity to spend some time with John Gilligan.
As an opportunity to put John Gilligan on the record for a company like ours, that specialises in making international crime television, it was too good an opportunity to miss."
Criticism of show
He dismissed criticism from Minister Hildegarde Naughton who questioned the merit of the show. In an interview with RTÉ’s This Week on Sunday the Minister for State, who is responsible for national drugs strategy, said that she wouldn’t be watching the series.
“I don’t think the producers have exercised particularly good judgement by giving John Gilligan the opportunity to speak about his actions on national television”
However, Mr Harvey said that he didn’t think the Minister would have commented on the matter if RTÉ hadn't “stuck a mic in front of her".
"So, I'm not particularly concerned about what she said. I think she was opportunistically jumping on it when she was asked the question.
"She didn't issue a statement in advance, so that's what I mean by that."
Mr Harvey said Gilligan has an “uncomfortable relationship with the truth” and doesn’t go unchallenged in the series.
"He has maintained this is the way it is all his life, and in this documentary, he tells his story from A to Z. It's not a particularly admirable way of living your life.
"We're not letting him speak freely about himself, everything he says is contradicted word by word, actually.
"It's not John Gilligan on his own, there are plenty of other participants in this programme who I have the height of respect for.
"I think this puts John Gilligan on the public record. I believe stories like this should be told.”
In the series, which gets underway on Monday night, Gilligan says that the 1996 murder of journalist Veronica Guerin was "the beginning of the end for him".
He said he had nothing to do with the murder.
"I wish it never happened. I wish the people never done it. For her sake and her family's sake as well, not just for mine."
Jimmy Guerin, the brother of Veronica, previously released a statement in which he said that he declined to participate in the making of the documentary series. He said that it was "disappointing" that a national television broadcaster was giving airtime to Mr Gilligan.
By Olivia Kelleher
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