March 5, 1998

Irish drug baron and gangster George “The Penguin” Mitchell was arrested in Amsterdam on this day in 1998, after being caught stealing five million pounds worth of computer parts. A native of Ballyfermot in Dublin, he became involved with associates of the murdered gangland boss Martin “The General” Cahill, and participated in a number of their robberies. He moved from Dublin to Amsterdam in 1996, after the arrest of his right-hand man, Johnny Doran. Rumors surfaced that he had fled the country after being placed on an IRA death list, though this claim was later refuted–his flight attributed to the close attention he was receiving from the Garda.