Shadows of the godfathers

Irish Independent


Sunday June 27 1999
IN a straw poll of 20 detective sources in Tallaght, Ballyfermot, Store Street, Finglas, Kilmainham, Clondalkin and Coolock, all but three said they thought things would never be as bad as they were in the time before June 1996. IN a straw poll of 20 detective sources in Tallaght, Ballyfermot, Store Street, Finglas, Kilmainham, Clondalkin and Coolock, all but three said they thought things would never be as bad as they were in the time before June 1996.

``It's bad and there are definitely still many attacks and stabbings and underhanded dealings and double-crossing and money going missing from drug deals. There are still some utter thugs, no, complete vicious bastards out there, who feel they can fill the shoes of the big boys who are behind bars and out of the country, but I don't think it's ever likely to become as bad as it was not with the current strategies being employed anyway,'' says a detective who has tracked, amongst others, Tommy Mullen (The Boxer), Georgie Mitchell (The Penguin) and PJ Judge (The Psycho). But attempts have been made to fill the shoes of some of the biggest drug dealers in the country.

A gang has made moves to replace the Boxer. They have a steady network of ``bouncers'' who have been placed strategically on the doors of pubs where many a drug deal is hatched and they are responsible for a substantial amount of the heroin and ecstasy sold on the streets between Coolock, Finglas, the north inner city and Blanchardstown.

But their efforts were interrupted late last year when a massive quantity of heroin was seized in Dublin.

Also on the north side of Dublin, a well-known crime family, whose members ``specialise'' in running the doors on pubs which the toughest of the tough frequent, is attempting to replace a man behind bars over a drugs haul.

He left a void when arrested in 1996 in possession of a substantial amount of ecstasy.

However, gardai have not, to date, been able to put in place a successful surveillance operation to identify the point of entry of their supplies into the country.

IN the south city, a former member of the Gilligan gang is still attempting to import drugs through contacts based in the Ballyfermot area, but two efforts to bring significant consignments into the country have already been thwarted.

Former associates of this man, who continue to live and operate from the Tallaght area, are understood to have turned informer, significantly damaging the operations of several of this group's ``trusted'' lieutenants.