Saturday December 23 2006
HE'S dead less than a fortnight, but already criminals are fighting for control of Martin 'Marlo' Hyland's territory in Dublin.
Three factions are believed to be battling for control of the lucrative armed robbery business across the north and west of the city that Hyland (39) and his gang ran prior to his assassination.
In recent years Hyland masterminded a number of high profile robberies on cash and transit vans, pocketing hundreds of thousands of euro needed to bankroll his drug-dealing operation.
Since his murder 11 days ago, three outfits, each led by a formidible criminal, have been planning to fill the void left by his death.
A number of Hyland's old gang have "deserted the cause" since his killing and gardai fear violence in the coming weeks as the other gangs move in on Marlo's business.
The three criminals leading the rival factions are Alan 'Fatpuss' Bradley, jailed armed robber John Daly and a third man from the Kippure area of Finglas who has a lengthy involvement in serious crime.
None of the men are suspects in Hyland's murder.
Alan Bradley attended the dead drug baron's funeral when it was held in Cabra earlier this week.
He is the leader of a criminal gang based in the Cappagh Road area of Finglas and is suspected by gardai of involvement in widespread criminality in the west Dublin area, including armed robbery and drug dealing.
Bradley (32) is currently arranging to pay a Criminal Assets Bureau bill of €350,000, which followed a lengthy investigation into his activities over two years.
A search of waste ground controlled by Bradley in Finglas in October yielded €100,000 of drugs and a quantity of shotgun ammunition. The drugs and ammunition were believed to belong to 'Fatpuss'. Bradley recently relaunched a small car sales business in a bid to raise cash to meet the €750,000 tax demand slammed on him and his brother Wayne by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
As well as selling used cars and scrambler bikes, Bradley controlled a mobile 'van shop' there which he recently closed down.
His rival in crime in the Finglas area is a man who is set for release from prison next year.
John Daly (26) is serving a nine-year sentence in Portlaoise Prison for an armed raid at an Esso station in Finglas in 1999.
Daly was an associate of Declan Curran, the feared armed robber who ran a gang in the Finglas west area and who died in prison two years ago.
Daly, has pledged to return to armed crime on his release from prison.
The third man, in his 30s, is an armed robber feared because of his temper and tendency to use firearms. He is suspected of being behind the murder of John Dillon (53) in Glenties Park in Finglas seven years ago.
He has also engaged in the widespread attempted intimidation of gardai, officers say.
He cannot be named for legal reasons.
Saturday 23 December 2006
Monday 18 December 2006
Crime bosses set to join mourners at Hyland funeral
By Eugene Moloney
Monday December 18 2006
THE funeral today of murdered gangland boss Martin Hyland is expected to attract the biggest crowd of mourners of any criminal figure since the 1994 service for Martin 'The General' Cahill.
In addition to the murdered drug dealer's immediate family, several hundred mourners, among them prominent figures from the Dublin underworld, are expected to flock to the Church of Christ the King in Cabra, both for his removal this evening at 5pm and his funeral Mass tomorrow morning at 10am.Low-key
Uniformed gardai are expected to adopt a low-key presence, but numerous plain clothes detectives will also attend.
This will give garda surveillance teams a chance to observe which criminals turn up to say goodbye to Hyland, one of seven children, who was born in Cabra in north Dublin in 1967.
In a death notice in newspapers today, Hyland's family have requested that only family flowers be sent.
The notice suggests that donations be made to Temple Street Children's Hospital.
Meanwhile, the funeral of apprentice plumber Anthony Campbell (20), the innocent man who was gunned down by Hyland's killers, takes place on Wednesday.
His mother and father Christine and Noel, stepmother Edel, brothers Travis and Noel and sister Ami are expected to be among a large crowd of mourners who will gather for his removal from Massey Brothers Funeral Home in Thomas Street to John's Lane Church for 6pm tomorrow, and funeral Mass at 10am on Wednesday.
He will be buried later at Newland's Cross Cemetery.
Hyland would have been just short of his 27th birthday when Cahill was gunned down.
At that time, Hyland was linked to Finglas drug dealer PJ Judge, also known as The Psycho, who was himself shot dead. Cahill's funeral featured a fleet of black limousines. Reports put the figure at up to 10.
At his funeral Mass, three priests officiated as family, friends, criminals and the simply curious packed into the Rathmines Church of Mary Immaculate, Refuge of Sinners.
Twelve years after the ruthless killing of Cahill, florists are again reporting brisk trade, with numerous orders for expensive wreaths for the funeral of Hyland.
Gardai were last night revealing none of the security measures that will be in place for the funeral.
Discreet
Although they will certainly discreetly photograph many of those attending, a garda spokesman would only say last night: "Obviously, we will have a presence."
It is understood some of the dead man's closest associates will act as stewards at the funeral.
While the gardai and the media will be watching to see whether individuals such as Patrick 'Dutchy' Holland or Dessie O'Hare turn up, associates of the late crime boss will also be on the look-out for unwelcome members of rival gangs whose very presence at Hyland's funeral may be deemed unwelcome.
- Eugene Moloney
Monday December 18 2006
THE funeral today of murdered gangland boss Martin Hyland is expected to attract the biggest crowd of mourners of any criminal figure since the 1994 service for Martin 'The General' Cahill.
In addition to the murdered drug dealer's immediate family, several hundred mourners, among them prominent figures from the Dublin underworld, are expected to flock to the Church of Christ the King in Cabra, both for his removal this evening at 5pm and his funeral Mass tomorrow morning at 10am.Low-key
Uniformed gardai are expected to adopt a low-key presence, but numerous plain clothes detectives will also attend.
This will give garda surveillance teams a chance to observe which criminals turn up to say goodbye to Hyland, one of seven children, who was born in Cabra in north Dublin in 1967.
In a death notice in newspapers today, Hyland's family have requested that only family flowers be sent.
The notice suggests that donations be made to Temple Street Children's Hospital.
Meanwhile, the funeral of apprentice plumber Anthony Campbell (20), the innocent man who was gunned down by Hyland's killers, takes place on Wednesday.
His mother and father Christine and Noel, stepmother Edel, brothers Travis and Noel and sister Ami are expected to be among a large crowd of mourners who will gather for his removal from Massey Brothers Funeral Home in Thomas Street to John's Lane Church for 6pm tomorrow, and funeral Mass at 10am on Wednesday.
He will be buried later at Newland's Cross Cemetery.
Hyland would have been just short of his 27th birthday when Cahill was gunned down.
At that time, Hyland was linked to Finglas drug dealer PJ Judge, also known as The Psycho, who was himself shot dead. Cahill's funeral featured a fleet of black limousines. Reports put the figure at up to 10.
At his funeral Mass, three priests officiated as family, friends, criminals and the simply curious packed into the Rathmines Church of Mary Immaculate, Refuge of Sinners.
Twelve years after the ruthless killing of Cahill, florists are again reporting brisk trade, with numerous orders for expensive wreaths for the funeral of Hyland.
Gardai were last night revealing none of the security measures that will be in place for the funeral.
Discreet
Although they will certainly discreetly photograph many of those attending, a garda spokesman would only say last night: "Obviously, we will have a presence."
It is understood some of the dead man's closest associates will act as stewards at the funeral.
While the gardai and the media will be watching to see whether individuals such as Patrick 'Dutchy' Holland or Dessie O'Hare turn up, associates of the late crime boss will also be on the look-out for unwelcome members of rival gangs whose very presence at Hyland's funeral may be deemed unwelcome.
- Eugene Moloney
Sunday 17 December 2006
IRA links to vicious criminals running our cities
By Jim Cusack
Sunday December 17 2006
IN THE ordinary run of things, the murders of Marlo Hyland, at his in Finglas home on Tuesday morning, and that of Gerard Byrne near the Financial Services Centre on Wednesday, should be two-day wonders which grabbed headlines and, for a moment, had the Government on the back foot over law and order.
But why did Anthony Campbell, a decent, hard-working young man who witnessed Hyland's murder, become a deliberate victim of the hired hit-men now operating in Dublin?
Despite the Taoiseach's apparent assurance that there was no evidence of IRA involvement, some well-placed Garda sources were last week insisting that there was no evidence that IRA or ex-IRA gunmen were not responsible.
For months, Garda surveillance teams had been monitoring Hyland's strange relationship with one of the most evil and dangerous figures thrown up by the Northern Troubles.
Dessie O'Hare was released almost two years ago, after serving 14 years of a 40-year sentence for kidnapping Dublin dentist John O'Grady. The 1987 abduction was one of the worst security crises in the history of the State but, for O'Hare, it was just one incident in a litany of terrorist crimes, including up to 30 murders of security force members in the North, Protestant civilians and members of his own republican terrorist community.
Since being paroled, O'Hare has been openly associating with members of the Dublin criminal underworld, most prominently the man named as the murderer of Veronica Guerin, Eugene Holland.
O'Hare was also covertly filmed in cars and in the company of Marlo Hyland, though there does not appear to have been any serious attempt to rearrest him over his obvious breach of parole conditions, which stipulate that he should not associate with criminals or terrorists.
Last weekend, a few days before Hyland's murder, O'Hare made the seemingly bizarre decision to visit Lourdes, though there has never been any indication that he was religious.
Some gardai believe he was providing himself with an alibi, and that he had been complicit in setting up Hyland for murder.
Given O'Hare's history of knocking off his erstwhile associates in the deadly Irish National Liberation Army, the theory is being treated seriously.
O'Hare is only the most high profile of the figures who developed their terrorist skills in the crucible of the Troubles and who, after it ended, decided to use their skills for profit in the Irish organised crime scene.
The chilling point about the murder of Anthony Campbell, the young plumber fixing a radiator in Hyland's house, is this: the murderers were very well prepared, knowing that Hyland's female relative and child left at a certain time every morning.
The hit was timed for that brief window, when Hyland was supposed to be alone in the house, and there would be no witnesses.
They would have seen Anthony Campbell start his work. At that point the killers made the decision that he too must be murdered.
Unlike "ordinary decent" criminals who could depend on simply threatening the young plumber, they made the judgment of professional killers: that the sole witness would be eliminated.
Anthony Campbell was murdered with a single shot to the head, also the mark of a trained, professional killer.
There is strong evidence that organised crime is being supplemented by the professional skills that were previously the preserve of only the IRA and one or two other terrorist groups.
There is also strong evidence that former IRA members, including men freed under the Good Friday Agreement, are now at the centre of organised crime in Ireland.
The manner of Gerard Byrne's murder last Wednesday has also given rise to suspicions that an outside killer did the job. He was shot dead with a single round to the back of the head, then shot four times.
This is reminiscent of two assassinations carried out by a former republican-turned-assassin in the border area, who shot dead former INLA boss Dominic McGlinchey's wife Mary, at her home in Dundalk, in 1987, and subsequently shot another ex-INLA man, 'Mad' Nicky O'Hare, also in Dundalk in November 2000.
A former IRA officer commanding (OC) is said to have been stood down at the start of 2004, after a series of media revelations about hijackings and other major crimes he was involved in. However, gardai say the man is still surrounded by former IRA associates, and has links to several major criminal endeavours, including drug and cigarette smuggling.
His predecessor as Dublin IRA OC is now based in Alicante and is using former IRA arms supply routes to ship drugs and cigarettes - often accompanied by weapons - to the Dublin crime gangs.
One man in his late 40s who was serving a large sentence for explosives, and released under the Good Friday Agreement, is also closely associated with one of the city's biggest heroin gangs, which has shipped huge amounts of the drug into Ireland.
This gang is run by a close relative who had connections with Sinn Fein in Dublin, but was not known as an IRA member. This younger man dropped his political connections as his drugs operations grew.
Another Belfast man, now in his 50s, who was released under the agreement, has also been linked to some of the tiger kidnappings in which families are held hostage while key-holders are brought to post offices, banks or business premises where money is held.
His gang was responsible for the tiger kidnapping in Rochestown in Cork in May last year, in which a businessman and his family were held hostage.
Two men were caught at the scene when the family was freed but the Belfast man escaped. He was later arrested and questioned but released for lack of evidence.
Gardai say he is still involved in crime, in the border and Dublin areas, where he has links to other former IRA man and is a continuing danger to the public.
- Jim Cusack
Sunday December 17 2006
IN THE ordinary run of things, the murders of Marlo Hyland, at his in Finglas home on Tuesday morning, and that of Gerard Byrne near the Financial Services Centre on Wednesday, should be two-day wonders which grabbed headlines and, for a moment, had the Government on the back foot over law and order.
But why did Anthony Campbell, a decent, hard-working young man who witnessed Hyland's murder, become a deliberate victim of the hired hit-men now operating in Dublin?
Despite the Taoiseach's apparent assurance that there was no evidence of IRA involvement, some well-placed Garda sources were last week insisting that there was no evidence that IRA or ex-IRA gunmen were not responsible.
For months, Garda surveillance teams had been monitoring Hyland's strange relationship with one of the most evil and dangerous figures thrown up by the Northern Troubles.
Dessie O'Hare was released almost two years ago, after serving 14 years of a 40-year sentence for kidnapping Dublin dentist John O'Grady. The 1987 abduction was one of the worst security crises in the history of the State but, for O'Hare, it was just one incident in a litany of terrorist crimes, including up to 30 murders of security force members in the North, Protestant civilians and members of his own republican terrorist community.
Since being paroled, O'Hare has been openly associating with members of the Dublin criminal underworld, most prominently the man named as the murderer of Veronica Guerin, Eugene Holland.
O'Hare was also covertly filmed in cars and in the company of Marlo Hyland, though there does not appear to have been any serious attempt to rearrest him over his obvious breach of parole conditions, which stipulate that he should not associate with criminals or terrorists.
Last weekend, a few days before Hyland's murder, O'Hare made the seemingly bizarre decision to visit Lourdes, though there has never been any indication that he was religious.
Some gardai believe he was providing himself with an alibi, and that he had been complicit in setting up Hyland for murder.
Given O'Hare's history of knocking off his erstwhile associates in the deadly Irish National Liberation Army, the theory is being treated seriously.
O'Hare is only the most high profile of the figures who developed their terrorist skills in the crucible of the Troubles and who, after it ended, decided to use their skills for profit in the Irish organised crime scene.
The chilling point about the murder of Anthony Campbell, the young plumber fixing a radiator in Hyland's house, is this: the murderers were very well prepared, knowing that Hyland's female relative and child left at a certain time every morning.
The hit was timed for that brief window, when Hyland was supposed to be alone in the house, and there would be no witnesses.
They would have seen Anthony Campbell start his work. At that point the killers made the decision that he too must be murdered.
Unlike "ordinary decent" criminals who could depend on simply threatening the young plumber, they made the judgment of professional killers: that the sole witness would be eliminated.
Anthony Campbell was murdered with a single shot to the head, also the mark of a trained, professional killer.
There is strong evidence that organised crime is being supplemented by the professional skills that were previously the preserve of only the IRA and one or two other terrorist groups.
There is also strong evidence that former IRA members, including men freed under the Good Friday Agreement, are now at the centre of organised crime in Ireland.
The manner of Gerard Byrne's murder last Wednesday has also given rise to suspicions that an outside killer did the job. He was shot dead with a single round to the back of the head, then shot four times.
This is reminiscent of two assassinations carried out by a former republican-turned-assassin in the border area, who shot dead former INLA boss Dominic McGlinchey's wife Mary, at her home in Dundalk, in 1987, and subsequently shot another ex-INLA man, 'Mad' Nicky O'Hare, also in Dundalk in November 2000.
A former IRA officer commanding (OC) is said to have been stood down at the start of 2004, after a series of media revelations about hijackings and other major crimes he was involved in. However, gardai say the man is still surrounded by former IRA associates, and has links to several major criminal endeavours, including drug and cigarette smuggling.
His predecessor as Dublin IRA OC is now based in Alicante and is using former IRA arms supply routes to ship drugs and cigarettes - often accompanied by weapons - to the Dublin crime gangs.
One man in his late 40s who was serving a large sentence for explosives, and released under the Good Friday Agreement, is also closely associated with one of the city's biggest heroin gangs, which has shipped huge amounts of the drug into Ireland.
This gang is run by a close relative who had connections with Sinn Fein in Dublin, but was not known as an IRA member. This younger man dropped his political connections as his drugs operations grew.
Another Belfast man, now in his 50s, who was released under the agreement, has also been linked to some of the tiger kidnappings in which families are held hostage while key-holders are brought to post offices, banks or business premises where money is held.
His gang was responsible for the tiger kidnapping in Rochestown in Cork in May last year, in which a businessman and his family were held hostage.
Two men were caught at the scene when the family was freed but the Belfast man escaped. He was later arrested and questioned but released for lack of evidence.
Gardai say he is still involved in crime, in the border and Dublin areas, where he has links to other former IRA man and is a continuing danger to the public.
- Jim Cusack
Drugs boom fuels Dublin gang killings
Armed police patrol the streets as five murders in a fortnight testify to a ruthless underworld war
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
The Observer, Sunday 17 December 2006
Christmas shoppers rushing into Dublin's city centre on the busiest week of the year are being greeted at checkpoints by police wearing body armour and carrying Uzi sub-machine guns.
The Garda Emergency Response Unit has been sent on to the streets by Michael McDowell, the Justice Minister, as a visible response to the escalating gangland war that has claimed 24 lives in 2006.
McDowell insists he will maintain an armed presence in Dublin over the festive period. In the last fortnight there have been six gun deaths - five of them related to the city's gangland.
Jimmy Guerin, brother of the murdered reporter Veronica Guerin, recognises the need for police on the streets, but says the reason for the feud is apparent in Dublin's bars and restaurants.
'I had been in this pub at a Christmas party near Phoenix Park. When I went to the toilet I saw three men at the same party snorting cocaine. They were all perfectly respectable young professionals who thought nothing of taking coke for social and recreational use,' he said. 'These are the people who are fuelling the drugs boom and making these gangsters very, very rich. There are only a couple of thousand registered heroin addicts in Dublin; there are hundreds of thousands of social users of drugs, particularly cocaine.'
Guerin contrasts the fortunes of the Dublin drug gangs of 2006 to the handful of dealers that his sister died exposing a decade ago. 'John Gilligan (the man whose gang were behind Veronica's death) and his team were earning around an estimated €25m (£16.8m) when she was killed. That was 10 years ago and today those figures would be far higher. There are dealers in this town earning up to €2m (£1.3m) a week, mainly from cocaine.'
The fate of another Dublin drug dealer, Martin 'Marlo' Hyland, illustrates the volatility of the city's new underworld. Hyland was shot four times in the head while he slept upstairs in his niece's house at Scribblestown Park, Finglas, last Tuesday morning. The 39-year-old dealer had been moving from house to house following a warning that his life was in danger. The street-wise career criminal ran a 10-man-strong gang of young, hardened drug dealers.
Detectives investigating his assassination believe that he was betrayed by at least two of his associates and the reason was simple - greed. 'They simply wanted to take over his operations,' said a senior Garda detective.
'Marlo had built up a vast empire on the northside that stretched from Finglas right over to Coolock. He was making huge profits, and somebody on the inside of the gang wanted more. They had killed other dealers in Finglas who were lowering their prices and getting in their way.'
The ruthless nature of the gang warfare that involves at least three separate feuds across the city was later demonstrated when Marlo's killers shot dead a 20-year old plumber, Anthony Campbell, as he worked on a radiator at the same house.
The plumber had no connections to Marlo or any other criminal boss. Anthony Campbell was targeted in all likelihood because he might have identified the unmasked hit team.
The Garda has scored some successes against organised crime in the city over the last 12 months. Thanks to Operation Oak and Operation Anvil - two major drives against the underworld - 2006 saw a record number of drugs seizures in the Irish Republic.
But those working with drug addicts in Dublin say that at no time in the year did the price of drugs rise as a result of a choking off of the supply.
Another worrying development is the use of bombs, which are being manufactured in Dundalk by former Provisional IRA and dissident republican explosives experts, and then sold on to various gangs.
Joe Costelloe represents the north inner city for the Labour Party, a constituency where many of the murders have taken place. He says that gangland killings have the lowest detection rate of any crime - just 15 per cent.
'There is a big incentive for young hitmen, many of them with drug habits themselves to fund, to go on killing. There is big money for a hit. Then there is the knowledge, which the detection figures show, that you are likely to get away with it,' he said.
Thursday 14 December 2006
Drugs gang murders to top agenda in election
By Senan Molony and Geraldine Collins
Thursday December 14 2006
THE calculated, cold blooded killing of an innocent plumber and 'Mr Big' of the drug world has catapulted crime to the top of the election agenda.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was yesterday left grappling with the tripling of underworld murders over the last three years, as slain drugs lord Martin 'Marlo' Hyland was linked in the Dail with the brutal assassination of Latvian mother-of-two Baiba Saulite. The callousness of the murder of Anthony Campbell was also raised.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny suggested Hyland had been "directly involved" in the gunning down of the young woman at the door of her home in Swords, Co Dublin, last month.
Mr Kenny asked the Taoiseach in the Dail if, in briefings given to him, Mr Ahern had received clear information that Marlo Hyland, the assassinated drug baron, was directly involved in the murder of Ms Saulite.
Mr Ahern replied he had "no evidence" of Hyland's involvement in the slaying of Ms Saulite.
"All I have heard is rumours but it is well known that the gun operation in Dublin and beyond was closely associated with Martin Hyland.
"Mr Kenny can work out the rest."
Kingpin
The Fine Gael leader asked if the Taoiseach's briefings extended to the information that the Provisional IRA was in receipt of protection money from the murdered criminal kingpin.
But the Taoiseach responded that he had seen "nothing that implicates anyone in the Provisional IRA" in involvement with Marlo Hyland.
A significant former paramilitary was in the company of Martin Hyland over the summer, but the person was not associated with the Provisional IRA "nor has he been", Mr Ahern said.
The former paramilitary is renegade Republican Dessie O'Hare, the 'Border Fox'.
And the Taoiseach insisted that as a result of targeted surveillance and intelligence in Operation Oak, that "the net was tightening around Martin Hyland".
He declared: "He was losing his grip on his criminal activities. A total of 43 of his associates had been arrested". Of these, 24 had been charged with serious offences within the last year, he added.
Based on intelligence and criminal operations, a further €23m worth of drugs and property have been confiscated.
But Mr Kenny insisted that despite claims Mr Hyland was "losing his grip", his own killing demonstrated that Government operations were not working. That was where the grip was being lost.
Innocent people were being mown down as a result of internal gangland feuds involving drugs and greed and containment efforts were failing. The public perception was that the Government parties had "either lost the bottle to do the business, or are not giving the Garda sufficient impetus to do its job".
Victims
Mr Ahern countered that the Government had "at all times" given gardai full resources and statutory powers to deal particularly with gang warfare.
He said most of the 23 who had died this year and the 21 who died last year were victims of gun crimes stemming from "a web of gangs" that operate in Dublin city and county and some surrounding counties.
Labour deputy leader Brendan Howlin said there had been no fewer than seven gun murders in the last month, representing nearly one-third of this year's historic total of 23 fatal shootings. There were only nine in 2004, but 21 in 2005.
"We have had a raft of new laws introduced in recent years, but clearly it is not working," he added.
"Operations Oak and Anvil may be taking out some of the more senior players, but there is a queue of apprentices ready to replace them.
"The Taoiseach and the Department of Justice had to now make tackling these gangs a top priority."
He added on radio that if the events of the last couple of months had not rocked the Government from its complacency, then this "must be the moment".
"Current policy has failed."
More resources are needed and steps taken to ensure small-time mule and feeder dealers were not available to provide drugs to addicts on the streets.
- Senan Molony and Geraldine Collins
Thursday December 14 2006
THE calculated, cold blooded killing of an innocent plumber and 'Mr Big' of the drug world has catapulted crime to the top of the election agenda.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was yesterday left grappling with the tripling of underworld murders over the last three years, as slain drugs lord Martin 'Marlo' Hyland was linked in the Dail with the brutal assassination of Latvian mother-of-two Baiba Saulite. The callousness of the murder of Anthony Campbell was also raised.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny suggested Hyland had been "directly involved" in the gunning down of the young woman at the door of her home in Swords, Co Dublin, last month.
Mr Kenny asked the Taoiseach in the Dail if, in briefings given to him, Mr Ahern had received clear information that Marlo Hyland, the assassinated drug baron, was directly involved in the murder of Ms Saulite.
Mr Ahern replied he had "no evidence" of Hyland's involvement in the slaying of Ms Saulite.
"All I have heard is rumours but it is well known that the gun operation in Dublin and beyond was closely associated with Martin Hyland.
"Mr Kenny can work out the rest."
Kingpin
The Fine Gael leader asked if the Taoiseach's briefings extended to the information that the Provisional IRA was in receipt of protection money from the murdered criminal kingpin.
But the Taoiseach responded that he had seen "nothing that implicates anyone in the Provisional IRA" in involvement with Marlo Hyland.
A significant former paramilitary was in the company of Martin Hyland over the summer, but the person was not associated with the Provisional IRA "nor has he been", Mr Ahern said.
The former paramilitary is renegade Republican Dessie O'Hare, the 'Border Fox'.
And the Taoiseach insisted that as a result of targeted surveillance and intelligence in Operation Oak, that "the net was tightening around Martin Hyland".
He declared: "He was losing his grip on his criminal activities. A total of 43 of his associates had been arrested". Of these, 24 had been charged with serious offences within the last year, he added.
Based on intelligence and criminal operations, a further €23m worth of drugs and property have been confiscated.
But Mr Kenny insisted that despite claims Mr Hyland was "losing his grip", his own killing demonstrated that Government operations were not working. That was where the grip was being lost.
Innocent people were being mown down as a result of internal gangland feuds involving drugs and greed and containment efforts were failing. The public perception was that the Government parties had "either lost the bottle to do the business, or are not giving the Garda sufficient impetus to do its job".
Victims
Mr Ahern countered that the Government had "at all times" given gardai full resources and statutory powers to deal particularly with gang warfare.
He said most of the 23 who had died this year and the 21 who died last year were victims of gun crimes stemming from "a web of gangs" that operate in Dublin city and county and some surrounding counties.
Labour deputy leader Brendan Howlin said there had been no fewer than seven gun murders in the last month, representing nearly one-third of this year's historic total of 23 fatal shootings. There were only nine in 2004, but 21 in 2005.
"We have had a raft of new laws introduced in recent years, but clearly it is not working," he added.
"Operations Oak and Anvil may be taking out some of the more senior players, but there is a queue of apprentices ready to replace them.
"The Taoiseach and the Department of Justice had to now make tackling these gangs a top priority."
He added on radio that if the events of the last couple of months had not rocked the Government from its complacency, then this "must be the moment".
"Current policy has failed."
More resources are needed and steps taken to ensure small-time mule and feeder dealers were not available to provide drugs to addicts on the streets.
- Senan Molony and Geraldine Collins
Wednesday 13 December 2006
The rise and fall of a top drug boss
By Tom Brady
Wednesday December 13 2006
MURDER victim Martin Hyland had established himself as Ireland's biggest drugs baron in the past two years.
Although a career criminal, he was a latecomer to the lucrative premier league of drug trafficking after investing the profits he garnered from a series of armed robberies in a number of shipments being smuggled into the country.
Hyland switched to the narcotics trade when gardai cracked down on the gangs primarily responsible for a spate of armed raids on cash-in-transit vans in the earlier part of the decade.
His decision to switch to drugs was taken three years ago and within a year he had emerged as one of the most active and ruthless crime figures in the business here. By the end of 2005, senior Garda officers were satisfied he was gangland's number one boss. A top level Garda conference discussing how to tackle the wave of violence in gangland led to the setting up of Operation Oak, which was aimed specifically at shutting down Hyland's activities.
Gardai were aware that Hyland had built up a nest egg from his substantial slice of more than €2m which had been netted from the armed raids in Dublin and surrounding counties, mainly in 2003 and 2004.
Hyland and his northside associates, were reckoned to be responsible for the vast bulk of the robberies from the security vans as they delivered cash to ATMs.
Robberies
The robberies yielded an estimated total of €3m and Hyland's outfit struck at targets in Drogheda, Co Louth, Swords, Dublin, Palmerstown, Dublin Maynooth, Co Kildare, and Enfield, Co Meath.
The robberies prompted gardai to set up Operation Delivery involving a 25-strong team drawn from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
That operation led to a series of arrests, and as security firms introduced tighter measures to control the movement of cash shipments, the gangs were forced to divert their attention to other areas.
Hyland came close to being caught on the job last April when some of his closest associates were captured in a Garda net as they were about to snatch an €80,000 payroll from a firm in Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
Detectives from two specialist operations, Delivery and Steel, were backed up by members of the Emergency Response Unit as they lay in wait following an intelligence lead. The robbery was foiled, arrests were made but Hyland escaped.
However, another blow to his bank balance had been struck by the gardai, who had previously intercepted a ton of cannabis, with an estimated street value of €700,000 at Drumcondra Rd in Dublin in December.
As gardai penetrated his gang, Hyland no longer appeared to be Mr Untouchable and the impact of the Garda attention brought him into further conflict with other criminals as he sought to keep ahead of his rivals and eliminate those he believed responsible for the seizures.
It was only a matter of time before he became the latest gangland victim.
- Tom Brady
Wednesday December 13 2006
MURDER victim Martin Hyland had established himself as Ireland's biggest drugs baron in the past two years.
Although a career criminal, he was a latecomer to the lucrative premier league of drug trafficking after investing the profits he garnered from a series of armed robberies in a number of shipments being smuggled into the country.
Hyland switched to the narcotics trade when gardai cracked down on the gangs primarily responsible for a spate of armed raids on cash-in-transit vans in the earlier part of the decade.
His decision to switch to drugs was taken three years ago and within a year he had emerged as one of the most active and ruthless crime figures in the business here. By the end of 2005, senior Garda officers were satisfied he was gangland's number one boss. A top level Garda conference discussing how to tackle the wave of violence in gangland led to the setting up of Operation Oak, which was aimed specifically at shutting down Hyland's activities.
Gardai were aware that Hyland had built up a nest egg from his substantial slice of more than €2m which had been netted from the armed raids in Dublin and surrounding counties, mainly in 2003 and 2004.
Hyland and his northside associates, were reckoned to be responsible for the vast bulk of the robberies from the security vans as they delivered cash to ATMs.
Robberies
The robberies yielded an estimated total of €3m and Hyland's outfit struck at targets in Drogheda, Co Louth, Swords, Dublin, Palmerstown, Dublin Maynooth, Co Kildare, and Enfield, Co Meath.
The robberies prompted gardai to set up Operation Delivery involving a 25-strong team drawn from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
That operation led to a series of arrests, and as security firms introduced tighter measures to control the movement of cash shipments, the gangs were forced to divert their attention to other areas.
Hyland came close to being caught on the job last April when some of his closest associates were captured in a Garda net as they were about to snatch an €80,000 payroll from a firm in Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
Detectives from two specialist operations, Delivery and Steel, were backed up by members of the Emergency Response Unit as they lay in wait following an intelligence lead. The robbery was foiled, arrests were made but Hyland escaped.
However, another blow to his bank balance had been struck by the gardai, who had previously intercepted a ton of cannabis, with an estimated street value of €700,000 at Drumcondra Rd in Dublin in December.
As gardai penetrated his gang, Hyland no longer appeared to be Mr Untouchable and the impact of the Garda attention brought him into further conflict with other criminals as he sought to keep ahead of his rivals and eliminate those he believed responsible for the seizures.
It was only a matter of time before he became the latest gangland victim.
- Tom Brady
Sunday 12 November 2006
Gardai brace for all-out gang war
Sunday Tribune
John Burke Crime Correspondent
GARDAI are bracing themselves for the possibility of an all-out war between rival organised crime outfits in Limerick and Dublin following a series of incidents involving senior members of the most violent gangs in both cities.
The Sunday Tribune has learned that major retaliation is being planned against leading members of the DundonMcCarthy gang, who are presently imprisoned in Mountjoy jail.
It is understood that associates of brothers John and Gerard Dundon . . . who are major figures in the Limerick city gang . . . have become embroiled in a series of violent tit-for-tat attacks against one of the most feared Dublin criminals, Michael Cahill, brother of the murdered 'General' Martin Cahill.
Michael Cahill has 26 convictions for offences including possession of drugs, robbery and assault. Cahill was attacked and badly injured in an incident in Mountjoy jail just weeks ago, and it is believed that the planned attack is in reprisal by criminals aligned to him.
"Associates of Cahill . . . who nobody has ever dared touch before . . . and the guys who carried out the attack on him have connections outside among the most volatile gangs in both cities. The reaction to these incidents point to one thing . . .
an unprecedented series of planned killings in revenge, " one well-placed prison service source told the Sunday Tribune this weekend.
November 12, 2006
John Burke Crime Correspondent
GARDAI are bracing themselves for the possibility of an all-out war between rival organised crime outfits in Limerick and Dublin following a series of incidents involving senior members of the most violent gangs in both cities.
The Sunday Tribune has learned that major retaliation is being planned against leading members of the DundonMcCarthy gang, who are presently imprisoned in Mountjoy jail.
It is understood that associates of brothers John and Gerard Dundon . . . who are major figures in the Limerick city gang . . . have become embroiled in a series of violent tit-for-tat attacks against one of the most feared Dublin criminals, Michael Cahill, brother of the murdered 'General' Martin Cahill.
Michael Cahill has 26 convictions for offences including possession of drugs, robbery and assault. Cahill was attacked and badly injured in an incident in Mountjoy jail just weeks ago, and it is believed that the planned attack is in reprisal by criminals aligned to him.
"Associates of Cahill . . . who nobody has ever dared touch before . . . and the guys who carried out the attack on him have connections outside among the most volatile gangs in both cities. The reaction to these incidents point to one thing . . .
an unprecedented series of planned killings in revenge, " one well-placed prison service source told the Sunday Tribune this weekend.
November 12, 2006
Sunday 29 October 2006
'All out war' expected in Mountjoy after attack on crime boss
Sunday Tribune
Prison of"cers predict 'terrible bloodshed' after The General's brother, Michael Cahill, is singled out
John Burke Crime Correspondent
PRISON staff at Mountjoy jail are predicting a state of "all out war" among hardened prisoners following an attack in recent days on one of the most feared Dublin crime bosses by a Limerick prisoner. The attack is just one incident in a dramatic surge in violence at the north Dublin city facility in recent weeks.
The Sunday Tribune has learned that armed robber Michael Cahill . . . brother of murdered gang leader Martin 'The General' Cahill . . . was brutally assaulted by a prisoner from Limerick.
One well-placed prison source said that the attack was "hugely significant."
Cahill's status among inmates is akin to an Italian mafiosa 'made man' and nobody has dared attack him previously.
The incident occurred in the 'circle' area . . . the open central hub of the prison . . . indicating an unprecedented boldness to the violent assaults among inmates. However, it is understood that while the prison service recently spent thousands of euro installing new CCTV in the circle area, the camera type put in place was a 'roving camera' and the incident was completely missed by the recorded footage.
Senior prison sources told the Sunday Tribune that the attack on Cahill (47) is expected to spark a major outbreak of violence and tit-for-tat attacks . . . with many fearing that a fatal incident is now almost inevitable. "This guy has never been touched before. Nobody would have dared.
Officers and prisoners are expecting terrible repercussions and bloodshed, " one officer told the Tribune.
Cahill is serving sentences for assault and armed robbery, including one incident in which he spat vomit at a garda. He has over 26 convictions for offences, including firearms possession and drugs offences.
The renewed fears of violence come just two-and-a-half months after the murder of prisoner Gary Douch, who was beaten to death by a fellow inmate in an overcrowded cell. Douch was resting on a mattress on the basement cell floor when his attacker began to punch and kick him without provocation. Douch's killer then challenged the other five cellmates to attempt to sexually assault him.
The inmate who carried out the fatal attack had been released from the Central Mental Hospital back into the care of Mountjoy prison just weeks before the killing.
Just five days before Douch was beaten to death in the basement of Mountjoy, Nigerian national Goodwill Udechukwu was stabbed and assaulted by a group of up to 10 men on the first day of his life sentence for the murder of his wife.
Since the murder of Gary Douch, it is understood that an average of one violent incident per day . . . approximately 80 since the 21-year-old Dubliner's killing in August . . . has been logged by prison staff. The day after the attack on Michael Cahill, prison officers recovered a prison-made knife, which had a seveninch blade, in one inmate's cell. It is suspected that this may have been intended for use in a reprisal attack. Other knives recovered in recent weeks include some with blades as long as 12 to 15 inches.
While some knives are illicitly manufactured inside the jail, many are thrown over the wall and collected by inmates.
One prison source said that it was important to note that the knives recovered were found after making their way into prisoners' cells. "These were not intercepted by prison officers at the point of entry. We got lucky in recovering them, but it is just a matter of time before someone throws a gun and ammunition over the wall for pre-arranged collection. The problem is that serious, and prison officers are intensely fearful for their safety and the safety of the prisoners."
The present escalation in violence is being driven by a number of factors, wellplaced prison staff told the Sunday Tribune. Rival Limerick factions who have been transferred to Mountjoy, including bitter enemies among the DundonMcCarthy and Keane gangs, have allied themselves to rival factions among a number of Crumlin and Finglas groupings.
However, one of the main driving forces behind the rising violence is the suspension of prison activities, in particular workshops and other activities. TheSunday Tribune has learned that the jail library opened for just three days during the entire month of July, for example. Major tensions have arisen as prisoners congregate in open areas, without diversions and activities to occupy their time.
It is estimated that of the 420 to 430 prisoners in Mountjoy, only around 50 are occupied with activities, including seven in the kitchen and a few dozen in the only functioning workshop area under D Base.
The present tension increases the likelihood that prison officers will proceed with industrial action. The Prison Officers' Association (POA) and the Irish prison service (IPS) met on 26 July last to discuss what staff believed was a significant lack of resources being invested in manpower and security measures.
The IPS gave staff representatives assurances that extra officers would be drafted into the jail at that emergency meeting.
However, it is understood that, while over a dozen prison officers have left Mountjoy in the past two months, none of the 23 training graduates who were deployed into the prison service in the same period were sent to the jail.
Following the murder of Gary Douch in August, the POA sought the declaration of a state of emergency at Mountjoy to allow extra staff to be drafted in to counter escalating violence. However, the IPS refused the request. The IPS is currently refurbishing wings A2 and A3 in Mountjoy, which had been previously declared as uninhabitable. However, it is understood that no in-cell sanitation is being put in place in the refurbished wings, which means that prisoners will continue the practice of slopping out. At the time Gary Douch was killed, there were over 520 inmates in the jail. This has recently been reduced to around 430. However, one well-placed prison staffer told the Tribune that tackling the overcrowding issue "only scratches the surface of the [violence-related] problems" in the jail.
Governor John Lonergan has also recently been critical of conditions at Mountjoy. In an interview with the Sunday Tribune near the time of the Douch killing, he said that 80% of inmates in Mountjoy were addicted to heroin.
It was "almost impossible" to restrict the distribution of drugs amongst the prisoners, he said. "Mountjoy is 156 years old and the building has not changed one bit since 1850, " he said.
"There is no way it is an adequate prison for the year 2006."
A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service (IPS) yesterday said that the figures compiled independently by staff did not tally with IPS records. "Flashpoints will occur in a system in which over 60% of people are in prison for violencerelated offences, " he said. The spokesman added that new measures to commit prisoners to Wheatfield and the Midlands jails, as well as 24-hour security arrangements for prisoners under threat of assault, were among major recent enhancements to prison security.
October 29, 2006
Prison of"cers predict 'terrible bloodshed' after The General's brother, Michael Cahill, is singled out
John Burke Crime Correspondent
PRISON staff at Mountjoy jail are predicting a state of "all out war" among hardened prisoners following an attack in recent days on one of the most feared Dublin crime bosses by a Limerick prisoner. The attack is just one incident in a dramatic surge in violence at the north Dublin city facility in recent weeks.
The Sunday Tribune has learned that armed robber Michael Cahill . . . brother of murdered gang leader Martin 'The General' Cahill . . . was brutally assaulted by a prisoner from Limerick.
One well-placed prison source said that the attack was "hugely significant."
Cahill's status among inmates is akin to an Italian mafiosa 'made man' and nobody has dared attack him previously.
The incident occurred in the 'circle' area . . . the open central hub of the prison . . . indicating an unprecedented boldness to the violent assaults among inmates. However, it is understood that while the prison service recently spent thousands of euro installing new CCTV in the circle area, the camera type put in place was a 'roving camera' and the incident was completely missed by the recorded footage.
Senior prison sources told the Sunday Tribune that the attack on Cahill (47) is expected to spark a major outbreak of violence and tit-for-tat attacks . . . with many fearing that a fatal incident is now almost inevitable. "This guy has never been touched before. Nobody would have dared.
Officers and prisoners are expecting terrible repercussions and bloodshed, " one officer told the Tribune.
Cahill is serving sentences for assault and armed robbery, including one incident in which he spat vomit at a garda. He has over 26 convictions for offences, including firearms possession and drugs offences.
The renewed fears of violence come just two-and-a-half months after the murder of prisoner Gary Douch, who was beaten to death by a fellow inmate in an overcrowded cell. Douch was resting on a mattress on the basement cell floor when his attacker began to punch and kick him without provocation. Douch's killer then challenged the other five cellmates to attempt to sexually assault him.
The inmate who carried out the fatal attack had been released from the Central Mental Hospital back into the care of Mountjoy prison just weeks before the killing.
Just five days before Douch was beaten to death in the basement of Mountjoy, Nigerian national Goodwill Udechukwu was stabbed and assaulted by a group of up to 10 men on the first day of his life sentence for the murder of his wife.
Since the murder of Gary Douch, it is understood that an average of one violent incident per day . . . approximately 80 since the 21-year-old Dubliner's killing in August . . . has been logged by prison staff. The day after the attack on Michael Cahill, prison officers recovered a prison-made knife, which had a seveninch blade, in one inmate's cell. It is suspected that this may have been intended for use in a reprisal attack. Other knives recovered in recent weeks include some with blades as long as 12 to 15 inches.
While some knives are illicitly manufactured inside the jail, many are thrown over the wall and collected by inmates.
One prison source said that it was important to note that the knives recovered were found after making their way into prisoners' cells. "These were not intercepted by prison officers at the point of entry. We got lucky in recovering them, but it is just a matter of time before someone throws a gun and ammunition over the wall for pre-arranged collection. The problem is that serious, and prison officers are intensely fearful for their safety and the safety of the prisoners."
The present escalation in violence is being driven by a number of factors, wellplaced prison staff told the Sunday Tribune. Rival Limerick factions who have been transferred to Mountjoy, including bitter enemies among the DundonMcCarthy and Keane gangs, have allied themselves to rival factions among a number of Crumlin and Finglas groupings.
However, one of the main driving forces behind the rising violence is the suspension of prison activities, in particular workshops and other activities. TheSunday Tribune has learned that the jail library opened for just three days during the entire month of July, for example. Major tensions have arisen as prisoners congregate in open areas, without diversions and activities to occupy their time.
It is estimated that of the 420 to 430 prisoners in Mountjoy, only around 50 are occupied with activities, including seven in the kitchen and a few dozen in the only functioning workshop area under D Base.
The present tension increases the likelihood that prison officers will proceed with industrial action. The Prison Officers' Association (POA) and the Irish prison service (IPS) met on 26 July last to discuss what staff believed was a significant lack of resources being invested in manpower and security measures.
The IPS gave staff representatives assurances that extra officers would be drafted into the jail at that emergency meeting.
However, it is understood that, while over a dozen prison officers have left Mountjoy in the past two months, none of the 23 training graduates who were deployed into the prison service in the same period were sent to the jail.
Following the murder of Gary Douch in August, the POA sought the declaration of a state of emergency at Mountjoy to allow extra staff to be drafted in to counter escalating violence. However, the IPS refused the request. The IPS is currently refurbishing wings A2 and A3 in Mountjoy, which had been previously declared as uninhabitable. However, it is understood that no in-cell sanitation is being put in place in the refurbished wings, which means that prisoners will continue the practice of slopping out. At the time Gary Douch was killed, there were over 520 inmates in the jail. This has recently been reduced to around 430. However, one well-placed prison staffer told the Tribune that tackling the overcrowding issue "only scratches the surface of the [violence-related] problems" in the jail.
Governor John Lonergan has also recently been critical of conditions at Mountjoy. In an interview with the Sunday Tribune near the time of the Douch killing, he said that 80% of inmates in Mountjoy were addicted to heroin.
It was "almost impossible" to restrict the distribution of drugs amongst the prisoners, he said. "Mountjoy is 156 years old and the building has not changed one bit since 1850, " he said.
"There is no way it is an adequate prison for the year 2006."
A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service (IPS) yesterday said that the figures compiled independently by staff did not tally with IPS records. "Flashpoints will occur in a system in which over 60% of people are in prison for violencerelated offences, " he said. The spokesman added that new measures to commit prisoners to Wheatfield and the Midlands jails, as well as 24-hour security arrangements for prisoners under threat of assault, were among major recent enhancements to prison security.
October 29, 2006
Dublin's heroin kingpin held in Holland
Sunday October 29 2006
JIM CUSACK and
MAEVE SHEEHAN
THE leader of Ireland's biggest heroin trafficking gang, which has been involved in a bloody feud that cost nine lives in the past five years, was arrested in Holland yesterday.
Heroin and weapons were seized by Dutch police when they arrested the 25-year-old Dublin criminal, a woman and two others in the Dutch port of Rotterdam yesterday morning.
The police were acting on a tip-off from detectives at Kilmainham Garda Station in Dublin, and the sting is directly linked to the massive €11m heroin cache seized by gardai last week.
The man is believed to have fled Ireland with his girlfriend after gardai netted the single biggest drugs seizure in Dublin last Tuesday.
The gang leader, from south Dublin, heads one of the most ruthless criminal organisations in the capital.
"We can confirm that an arrest has taken place in Holland, as a follow-on from investigations based at Kilmainham Garda Station into the recent seizure of heroin in Dublin," said Det Supt PJ Browne who is in charge of the operation.
The criminal who comes originally from Loreto Road in the south-inner city has risen to prominence in recent years, having started in the drugs trade in his mid-teens.
He has been spending more time in Holland since the last deadly outbreak of feuding between his gang and their former associates at the end of last year.
He has escaped several attempts on his life.
Gardai are particularly concerned that both gangs have been buying more deadly weapons, as there is no sign of the feuding coming to an end.
About 53kg of heroin and 25kg of cannabis were discovered in the Aras na Cluana apartment complex in Clondalkin last week. Gardai also found a Heckler and Koch sub-machine gun which the gang had imported with the drugs.
A 22-year-old man who was renting the apartment since May turned himself over to gardai since the seizure. He is being questioned this weekend.
Sources said the Crumlin gangster's girlfriend also rented an apartment in the same complex.
"The scale of the find is worrying evidence of the increased demand for heroin in Ireland. And gardai in provincial cities such as Galway, Cork and Waterford are reporting a rise in heroin usage," said Cormac Gordon, Chief Superintendent of the National Drugs Unit.
The trend is borne out by the latest crime figures, compiled by the Central Statistics Office, which show that drug dealing offences were up more than 25 per cent, while manufacturing and importing drugs has almost doubled.
The gang behind last week's heroin seizure in Dublin is believed to owe its European suppliers over €1m, and may face execution if they fail to meet their debt.
Gardai believe their Dutch suppliers may have links to the Russian mafia.
The Dublin gang, which has been involved in a bloody feud for the past five years with another south-city-based gang, is also searching for people to blame for the seizure.
Senior gardai described it as "basic, good detective work" by a number of young gardai from Pearse Street Station in Dublin, who were on surveillance duty as part of Operation Anvil in the city last week.
Garda sources said they had already had indications that the gang behind the Clondalkin heroin haul had begun to panic about their failure to meet their debts to their ruthless suppliers.
"We anticipate there will be trouble over this," one senior sources said.
After gardai from Pearse Street raided a cocaine mixing operation in a hotel room in the city centre in 2001, which led to further seizures, the gang split up in an acrimonious row, with members blaming each other for the seizures.
The gang split in two and began fighting.
The first murder in the feud was that of Declan Gavin who was stabbed to death in August 2001.
In a series of tit-for-tat murders since - culminating in three murders within a week last November - more than nine people have been killed and others have narrowly escaped death in dozens of shootings.
The discovery of the Heckler and Koch gun, one of the most powerful weapons of its kind, is an indication that the heroin gang was preparing for even more deadly feuding in the future.
The only other group ever to have imported a weapon of this kind - which is normally used by special forces including the Army Ranger Wing - was the IRA.
JIM CUSACK and
MAEVE SHEEHAN
THE leader of Ireland's biggest heroin trafficking gang, which has been involved in a bloody feud that cost nine lives in the past five years, was arrested in Holland yesterday.
Heroin and weapons were seized by Dutch police when they arrested the 25-year-old Dublin criminal, a woman and two others in the Dutch port of Rotterdam yesterday morning.
The police were acting on a tip-off from detectives at Kilmainham Garda Station in Dublin, and the sting is directly linked to the massive €11m heroin cache seized by gardai last week.
The man is believed to have fled Ireland with his girlfriend after gardai netted the single biggest drugs seizure in Dublin last Tuesday.
The gang leader, from south Dublin, heads one of the most ruthless criminal organisations in the capital.
"We can confirm that an arrest has taken place in Holland, as a follow-on from investigations based at Kilmainham Garda Station into the recent seizure of heroin in Dublin," said Det Supt PJ Browne who is in charge of the operation.
The criminal who comes originally from Loreto Road in the south-inner city has risen to prominence in recent years, having started in the drugs trade in his mid-teens.
He has been spending more time in Holland since the last deadly outbreak of feuding between his gang and their former associates at the end of last year.
He has escaped several attempts on his life.
Gardai are particularly concerned that both gangs have been buying more deadly weapons, as there is no sign of the feuding coming to an end.
About 53kg of heroin and 25kg of cannabis were discovered in the Aras na Cluana apartment complex in Clondalkin last week. Gardai also found a Heckler and Koch sub-machine gun which the gang had imported with the drugs.
A 22-year-old man who was renting the apartment since May turned himself over to gardai since the seizure. He is being questioned this weekend.
Sources said the Crumlin gangster's girlfriend also rented an apartment in the same complex.
"The scale of the find is worrying evidence of the increased demand for heroin in Ireland. And gardai in provincial cities such as Galway, Cork and Waterford are reporting a rise in heroin usage," said Cormac Gordon, Chief Superintendent of the National Drugs Unit.
The trend is borne out by the latest crime figures, compiled by the Central Statistics Office, which show that drug dealing offences were up more than 25 per cent, while manufacturing and importing drugs has almost doubled.
The gang behind last week's heroin seizure in Dublin is believed to owe its European suppliers over €1m, and may face execution if they fail to meet their debt.
Gardai believe their Dutch suppliers may have links to the Russian mafia.
The Dublin gang, which has been involved in a bloody feud for the past five years with another south-city-based gang, is also searching for people to blame for the seizure.
Senior gardai described it as "basic, good detective work" by a number of young gardai from Pearse Street Station in Dublin, who were on surveillance duty as part of Operation Anvil in the city last week.
Garda sources said they had already had indications that the gang behind the Clondalkin heroin haul had begun to panic about their failure to meet their debts to their ruthless suppliers.
"We anticipate there will be trouble over this," one senior sources said.
After gardai from Pearse Street raided a cocaine mixing operation in a hotel room in the city centre in 2001, which led to further seizures, the gang split up in an acrimonious row, with members blaming each other for the seizures.
The gang split in two and began fighting.
The first murder in the feud was that of Declan Gavin who was stabbed to death in August 2001.
In a series of tit-for-tat murders since - culminating in three murders within a week last November - more than nine people have been killed and others have narrowly escaped death in dozens of shootings.
The discovery of the Heckler and Koch gun, one of the most powerful weapons of its kind, is an indication that the heroin gang was preparing for even more deadly feuding in the future.
The only other group ever to have imported a weapon of this kind - which is normally used by special forces including the Army Ranger Wing - was the IRA.
Dublin's heroin kingpin held in Holland
Sunday October 29 2006
JIM CUSACK and
MAEVE SHEEHAN
THE leader of Ireland's biggest heroin trafficking gang, which has been involved in a bloody feud that cost nine lives in the past five years, was arrested in Holland yesterday.
Heroin and weapons were seized by Dutch police when they arrested the 25-year-old Dublin criminal, a woman and two others in the Dutch port of Rotterdam yesterday morning.
The police were acting on a tip-off from detectives at Kilmainham Garda Station in Dublin, and the sting is directly linked to the massive €11m heroin cache seized by gardai last week.
The man is believed to have fled Ireland with his girlfriend after gardai netted the single biggest drugs seizure in Dublin last Tuesday.
The gang leader, from south Dublin, heads one of the most ruthless criminal organisations in the capital.
"We can confirm that an arrest has taken place in Holland, as a follow-on from investigations based at Kilmainham Garda Station into the recent seizure of heroin in Dublin," said Det Supt PJ Browne who is in charge of the operation.
The criminal who comes originally from Loreto Road in the south-inner city has risen to prominence in recent years, having started in the drugs trade in his mid-teens.
He has been spending more time in Holland since the last deadly outbreak of feuding between his gang and their former associates at the end of last year.
He has escaped several attempts on his life.
Gardai are particularly concerned that both gangs have been buying more deadly weapons, as there is no sign of the feuding coming to an end.
About 53kg of heroin and 25kg of cannabis were discovered in the Aras na Cluana apartment complex in Clondalkin last week. Gardai also found a Heckler and Koch sub-machine gun which the gang had imported with the drugs.
A 22-year-old man who was renting the apartment since May turned himself over to gardai since the seizure. He is being questioned this weekend.
Sources said the Crumlin gangster's girlfriend also rented an apartment in the same complex.
"The scale of the find is worrying evidence of the increased demand for heroin in Ireland. And gardai in provincial cities such as Galway, Cork and Waterford are reporting a rise in heroin usage," said Cormac Gordon, Chief Superintendent of the National Drugs Unit.
The trend is borne out by the latest crime figures, compiled by the Central Statistics Office, which show that drug dealing offences were up more than 25 per cent, while manufacturing and importing drugs has almost doubled.
The gang behind last week's heroin seizure in Dublin is believed to owe its European suppliers over €1m, and may face execution if they fail to meet their debt.
Gardai believe their Dutch suppliers may have links to the Russian mafia.
The Dublin gang, which has been involved in a bloody feud for the past five years with another south-city-based gang, is also searching for people to blame for the seizure.
Senior gardai described it as "basic, good detective work" by a number of young gardai from Pearse Street Station in Dublin, who were on surveillance duty as part of Operation Anvil in the city last week.
Garda sources said they had already had indications that the gang behind the Clondalkin heroin haul had begun to panic about their failure to meet their debts to their ruthless suppliers.
"We anticipate there will be trouble over this," one senior sources said.
After gardai from Pearse Street raided a cocaine mixing operation in a hotel room in the city centre in 2001, which led to further seizures, the gang split up in an acrimonious row, with members blaming each other for the seizures.
The gang split in two and began fighting.
The first murder in the feud was that of Declan Gavin who was stabbed to death in August 2001.
In a series of tit-for-tat murders since - culminating in three murders within a week last November - more than nine people have been killed and others have narrowly escaped death in dozens of shootings.
The discovery of the Heckler and Koch gun, one of the most powerful weapons of its kind, is an indication that the heroin gang was preparing for even more deadly feuding in the future.
The only other group ever to have imported a weapon of this kind - which is normally used by special forces including the Army Ranger Wing - was the IRA.
JIM CUSACK and
MAEVE SHEEHAN
THE leader of Ireland's biggest heroin trafficking gang, which has been involved in a bloody feud that cost nine lives in the past five years, was arrested in Holland yesterday.
Heroin and weapons were seized by Dutch police when they arrested the 25-year-old Dublin criminal, a woman and two others in the Dutch port of Rotterdam yesterday morning.
The police were acting on a tip-off from detectives at Kilmainham Garda Station in Dublin, and the sting is directly linked to the massive €11m heroin cache seized by gardai last week.
The man is believed to have fled Ireland with his girlfriend after gardai netted the single biggest drugs seizure in Dublin last Tuesday.
The gang leader, from south Dublin, heads one of the most ruthless criminal organisations in the capital.
"We can confirm that an arrest has taken place in Holland, as a follow-on from investigations based at Kilmainham Garda Station into the recent seizure of heroin in Dublin," said Det Supt PJ Browne who is in charge of the operation.
The criminal who comes originally from Loreto Road in the south-inner city has risen to prominence in recent years, having started in the drugs trade in his mid-teens.
He has been spending more time in Holland since the last deadly outbreak of feuding between his gang and their former associates at the end of last year.
He has escaped several attempts on his life.
Gardai are particularly concerned that both gangs have been buying more deadly weapons, as there is no sign of the feuding coming to an end.
About 53kg of heroin and 25kg of cannabis were discovered in the Aras na Cluana apartment complex in Clondalkin last week. Gardai also found a Heckler and Koch sub-machine gun which the gang had imported with the drugs.
A 22-year-old man who was renting the apartment since May turned himself over to gardai since the seizure. He is being questioned this weekend.
Sources said the Crumlin gangster's girlfriend also rented an apartment in the same complex.
"The scale of the find is worrying evidence of the increased demand for heroin in Ireland. And gardai in provincial cities such as Galway, Cork and Waterford are reporting a rise in heroin usage," said Cormac Gordon, Chief Superintendent of the National Drugs Unit.
The trend is borne out by the latest crime figures, compiled by the Central Statistics Office, which show that drug dealing offences were up more than 25 per cent, while manufacturing and importing drugs has almost doubled.
The gang behind last week's heroin seizure in Dublin is believed to owe its European suppliers over €1m, and may face execution if they fail to meet their debt.
Gardai believe their Dutch suppliers may have links to the Russian mafia.
The Dublin gang, which has been involved in a bloody feud for the past five years with another south-city-based gang, is also searching for people to blame for the seizure.
Senior gardai described it as "basic, good detective work" by a number of young gardai from Pearse Street Station in Dublin, who were on surveillance duty as part of Operation Anvil in the city last week.
Garda sources said they had already had indications that the gang behind the Clondalkin heroin haul had begun to panic about their failure to meet their debts to their ruthless suppliers.
"We anticipate there will be trouble over this," one senior sources said.
After gardai from Pearse Street raided a cocaine mixing operation in a hotel room in the city centre in 2001, which led to further seizures, the gang split up in an acrimonious row, with members blaming each other for the seizures.
The gang split in two and began fighting.
The first murder in the feud was that of Declan Gavin who was stabbed to death in August 2001.
In a series of tit-for-tat murders since - culminating in three murders within a week last November - more than nine people have been killed and others have narrowly escaped death in dozens of shootings.
The discovery of the Heckler and Koch gun, one of the most powerful weapons of its kind, is an indication that the heroin gang was preparing for even more deadly feuding in the future.
The only other group ever to have imported a weapon of this kind - which is normally used by special forces including the Army Ranger Wing - was the IRA.
Thursday 26 October 2006
Gardai close in on drugs gang
By Tom Brady
Thursday October 26 2006
GARDAI expect to make an early arrest in connection with the record haul of heroin found in a Dublin apartment complex.
Detailed checks yesterday established that the drugs haul consisted of 54 kilos of heroin, with a street value of €10.8m, and 40 kilos of herbal cannabis, worth €80,000.
A search for two men, who jumped 25 feet from a second-floor apartment to evade arrest, was extended throughout the city and surrounding counties last night.
Senior garda officers believe they have identified one of the men as a 22-year-old drug dealer from Ballyfermot.
He is regarded as a minor "player", who is part of one of the biggest drug trafficking gangs in west Dublin.
Detectives suspect that members of this gang combined with criminals associated with one of the feuding gangs in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area to organise the heroin shipment.
They believe one of the masterminds is leader of a mob involved in a bitter row with rivals over the past five years.
The row arose over the garda seizure of a drugs haul from a hotel in Pearse Street in the centre of the city in 2001 and the recriminations resulted in eight deaths in tit-for-tat killings, including three murders late last year.
Gardai fear there could be further recriminations as a result of the latest find as the organisers try to find out who was responsible for tipping off the gardai about the apartment haul.
The garda raid on Tuesday night was carried out by unarmed members of the crime task force in the south central division and the drug haul they recovered was "beyond their wildest dreams".
Officers said last night that task force members had not waited for armed back-up as they had not anticipated the extent of the shipment hidden in the apartment in the Ard na Cluaine complex at Yellow Meadows, off Nangor Road, in Clondalkin.
As gardai closed in on the second floor apartment, two men inside fled and jumped to safety. Last night detectives were working on the identity of the secondsuspect.
Garda technical experts carried out a minute examination of the haul and the apartment to find clues to the identity of others involved with the shipment.
The heroin was found in the apartment while the cannabis was hidden in one of three vehicles seized by the gardai.
Also recovered was a Heckler and Koch machine gun, a silencer, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a .38 Smith and Wesson specials and magazines for Lugers and Glock machine pistols.
A couple of hundred euro in cash was also found along with a mixing agent and weighing scales, as the heroin was being prepared for distribution on the streets of west and south Dublin.
The heroin haul is the biggest so far in the State and is worth more on the streets than the combined seizures in 2003, 2004 and last year.
The find was made as part of Operation Anvil, an anti-crime initiative which has been extended nationwide.
Detectives from several national units have joined the investigation in an effort to find and charge those responsible for importing the drugs into the country.
- Tom Brady
Thursday October 26 2006
GARDAI expect to make an early arrest in connection with the record haul of heroin found in a Dublin apartment complex.
Detailed checks yesterday established that the drugs haul consisted of 54 kilos of heroin, with a street value of €10.8m, and 40 kilos of herbal cannabis, worth €80,000.
A search for two men, who jumped 25 feet from a second-floor apartment to evade arrest, was extended throughout the city and surrounding counties last night.
Senior garda officers believe they have identified one of the men as a 22-year-old drug dealer from Ballyfermot.
He is regarded as a minor "player", who is part of one of the biggest drug trafficking gangs in west Dublin.
Detectives suspect that members of this gang combined with criminals associated with one of the feuding gangs in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area to organise the heroin shipment.
They believe one of the masterminds is leader of a mob involved in a bitter row with rivals over the past five years.
The row arose over the garda seizure of a drugs haul from a hotel in Pearse Street in the centre of the city in 2001 and the recriminations resulted in eight deaths in tit-for-tat killings, including three murders late last year.
Gardai fear there could be further recriminations as a result of the latest find as the organisers try to find out who was responsible for tipping off the gardai about the apartment haul.
The garda raid on Tuesday night was carried out by unarmed members of the crime task force in the south central division and the drug haul they recovered was "beyond their wildest dreams".
Officers said last night that task force members had not waited for armed back-up as they had not anticipated the extent of the shipment hidden in the apartment in the Ard na Cluaine complex at Yellow Meadows, off Nangor Road, in Clondalkin.
As gardai closed in on the second floor apartment, two men inside fled and jumped to safety. Last night detectives were working on the identity of the secondsuspect.
Garda technical experts carried out a minute examination of the haul and the apartment to find clues to the identity of others involved with the shipment.
The heroin was found in the apartment while the cannabis was hidden in one of three vehicles seized by the gardai.
Also recovered was a Heckler and Koch machine gun, a silencer, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a .38 Smith and Wesson specials and magazines for Lugers and Glock machine pistols.
A couple of hundred euro in cash was also found along with a mixing agent and weighing scales, as the heroin was being prepared for distribution on the streets of west and south Dublin.
The heroin haul is the biggest so far in the State and is worth more on the streets than the combined seizures in 2003, 2004 and last year.
The find was made as part of Operation Anvil, an anti-crime initiative which has been extended nationwide.
Detectives from several national units have joined the investigation in an effort to find and charge those responsible for importing the drugs into the country.
- Tom Brady
Sunday 20 August 2006
Sunday Tribune
Gangland killing brings the week's murder toll to five
Eoghan Rice
GARDAI believe the murder of a 22-year-old man in Dublin early yesterday was related to an ongoing fued between criminal gangs operating in the south of the city.
The man, named locally as Wayne Zambra, was shot dead as he sat in a Honda jeep on Cameron St, off Cork St, Dublin 8. The victim was sitting in the vehicle with three other men when a gunman approached and opened fire on the group. One of the passengers received gunshot wounds to the leg, while two others escaped unharmed.
Zambra was known to gardai and had previously been jailed in relation to a stabbing incident outside a Dublin-city pub. Gardai believe the murder is linked to a feud in the Drimnagh area of the city, which had claimed up to seven lives before yesterday's attack.
The two unharmed passengers were arrested for questioning by gardai. Detectives have asked for anyone who saw a silver-coloured car driving in the area at the time to come forward.
The shooting brings to five the number of people killed in Ireland in the past week. Zambra was killed just around the corner from where the body of 80-year-old Vincent Plunkett was discovered on Monday.
The convicted stalker died from stab wounds at his home in Robinson Court, Cork St.
On Tuesday, gardai in Cork launched a murder investigation after the body of Charles Wrench (42) was discovered at his home in Millstreet. Wrench died from gunshot wounds.
On Wednesday, Eddie Joe Clancy (50) was found dead in Tralee, Co Kerry. He had been living rough and was viciously assaulted at 1.30am on Bridge St in the town centre. He died as a result of head injuries.
Gregory Rowan (44) became the week's fourth homicide victim when he was fatally beaten outside a party in a flat on Sillogue Road, Ballymun. It is believed he was assaulted by at least two men.
August 20, 2006
Gangland killing brings the week's murder toll to five
Eoghan Rice
GARDAI believe the murder of a 22-year-old man in Dublin early yesterday was related to an ongoing fued between criminal gangs operating in the south of the city.
The man, named locally as Wayne Zambra, was shot dead as he sat in a Honda jeep on Cameron St, off Cork St, Dublin 8. The victim was sitting in the vehicle with three other men when a gunman approached and opened fire on the group. One of the passengers received gunshot wounds to the leg, while two others escaped unharmed.
Zambra was known to gardai and had previously been jailed in relation to a stabbing incident outside a Dublin-city pub. Gardai believe the murder is linked to a feud in the Drimnagh area of the city, which had claimed up to seven lives before yesterday's attack.
The two unharmed passengers were arrested for questioning by gardai. Detectives have asked for anyone who saw a silver-coloured car driving in the area at the time to come forward.
The shooting brings to five the number of people killed in Ireland in the past week. Zambra was killed just around the corner from where the body of 80-year-old Vincent Plunkett was discovered on Monday.
The convicted stalker died from stab wounds at his home in Robinson Court, Cork St.
On Tuesday, gardai in Cork launched a murder investigation after the body of Charles Wrench (42) was discovered at his home in Millstreet. Wrench died from gunshot wounds.
On Wednesday, Eddie Joe Clancy (50) was found dead in Tralee, Co Kerry. He had been living rough and was viciously assaulted at 1.30am on Bridge St in the town centre. He died as a result of head injuries.
Gregory Rowan (44) became the week's fourth homicide victim when he was fatally beaten outside a party in a flat on Sillogue Road, Ballymun. It is believed he was assaulted by at least two men.
August 20, 2006
Monday 7 August 2006
British body count soars as the Costa killers turn up the heat
Spanish police see the recent drug gang shootings as a worrying sign of change in the expat community
Giles Tremlett in Marbella
The Guardian, Monday 7 August 2006
It was a busy Friday evening at The Point, a bar in the southern Spanish resort of Marbella, as the mainly British clientele enjoyed the warm night air on a terrace overlooking a palm tree lined golf course.
Among the drinkers was a regular known as Gerry, a popular 43-year-old Londoner who had been living around the British-dominated neighbourhood of Nueva AndalucÃa for some years.
In the few seconds it takes to pump half a dozen bullets into someone from point-blank range, the calm of an idyllic Mediterranean evening was shattered. "There were several shots and everybody just hit the ground," said one person who was in The Point that night.
By the time people had picked themselves up off the floor or begun to run, a blood-spattered, bullet-ridden Gerry was either dead or close to dead. An ambulance crew certified his death at the scene.
Speculation immediately started that the increasingly deadly battles being fought by British drug gangs in Spain had erupted among the bougainvillea-clad villas and white-painted, low-rise apartment blocks of Nueva AndalucÃa.
"They say it was a gangland execution," said Romualdo Velasco, a local shop-owner whose apartment overlooks The Point. "The British keep themselves to themselves, so it is hard to know."
There was no doubt that the gunman, or gunmen, wanted Gerry dead. He had taken at least five bullets.
A rumour doing the rounds of the Costa del Sol's British pubs in the wake of the shooting was that Gerry's wife and children may have witnessed the killing. Other reports spoke of three men who were either drinking with him or who appeared at his table.
Gerry's popularity can be measured by the two dozen floral tributes wilting in the sunshine outside The Point. Cards on them describe him as "a great mate", "a dear friend" and someone "who will never be forgotten" or is "constanly [sic] in our thoughts". They are signed by people like "Little John", "Biff and Family" and numerous British couples or families.
Spanish police, who carted the corpses of four executed British and Irish crooks off to morgues in July alone, are keeping tight-lipped. But they obviously fear the worst. Gerry's real name, it has turned out, was William Moy. "He was already known to us," Commissar ValentÃn Bahut, head of the police's organised crime unit in nearby Málaga, told the Guardian. "We had arrested him in 2000."
With a local judge ordering that the investigation be kept secret, Commissar Bahut could not talk in detail about the case. But he confirmed there was growing concern about British and Irish bodies piling up in Spanish morgues.
For the police, used to the presence of British crooks in a place that gained its Costa del Crime nickname decades ago, the deaths are a worrying sign of change. "It used to be that the British fought in other ways," he explained. "It was the French or Italians who killed one another. But as of a few years ago we have noticed the British are getting violent in a way that they were not before," he added. "Now they have - and use - firearms."
That concern has only increased following the shooting of a suspected drug dealer in Ibiza last week after a shoot-out between British gangs. Police suspect the victim, who was driving a 4x4 black BMW X5, was the target of an attempted hit by a rival gang supplying clubbers with ecstasy and other drugs. He is recovering in the intensive care unit of a local hospital.
Among those to have died in the apparent spate of gangland shootings were the Dublin gangsters Shane Coates, 31, and Stephen Sugg, 27, as well as the colourful British playboy and drug runner, Colin Nobes, 47. The bodies of Coates and Sugg were found last month at the bottom of a two-metre pit covered with cement. Nobes's corpse was discovered under a motorway bridge.
Arrests in all three cases have been of other British and Irish people settled in Spain or in the nearby Algarve region of southern Portugal, which is becoming increasingly popular for traffickers beginning to feel the heat in Spain.
Police, meanwhile, are seeking the corpse of a third Irish gangster, Sean Dunne, whose body may have been cemented into a Spanish villa's foundations.
Last year's haul of deaths included those of timeshare operators Billy and Flo Robinson in Tenerife and the startling discovery of a corpse being kept in a Portuguese freezer by Irish gangsters. Mrs Robinson, 55, was found in a pool of blood beside her Mercedes near the family's £1m luxury villa. Mr Robinson, 58, was on the back seat of his Porsche Cayenne a few kilometres away.
British crooks are mainly drug traffickers, involved in the hashish trade from Morocco, or timeshare operators, Commissar Bahut said. British bars, estate agencies and restaurants are being used to launder profits, he added.
Among the reasons for increased violence, he said, was the arrival of Northern Irish gangsters who had previously been involved in sectarian violence.
Britain's decision to concentrate policing on Class A drugs had helped as it allowed gangs to flourish. "Drug gangs always generate other types of crimes among themselves, especially robbery, kidnapping and murder," Commissar Bahut said. "The British have now realised that you have to keep watching them."
Several British police officers are based in this area semi-permanently. But it is not an easy community to police. The registered, permanent population of Britons in Spain grew to 274,00 last year. Authorities think up to three times as many spend part of the year in Spain. Some estimates talk of 300,000 Britons living for parts of the year on the Costa del Sol alone. Millions of tourists add further cover.
"It is very difficult for us to investigate because they stick together in their bars and places where Spanish police officers stand out," said Commissar Bahut.
The Point is not, however, one of those joints that are known haunts for British crooks, and it was clear yesterday that, whatever the motives for William Moy's killing, he was going to be missed. Nowhere was this more apparent than on one card on a bunch of flowers outside the bar. "I will always love you my Baby, forever and ever," it read. "And I will be with you one day my SON. Love MUMMY."
Violent history
Spain gained its Costa del Crime reputation after an extradition treaty with Britain collapsed in 1978. A new treaty was not drawn up until 1985. Celebrity crooks like Ronnie Knight and others involved in robberies like the £26m Brinks Mat gold bullion heist fled to Spain. They were careful never to upset local police.
Even after the treaty was sorted out, the growing expat population continued to provide camouflage. Well-known crooks such as Clifford Saxe set up business in Spain, trading hashish from Morocco. Others, like fraudster John Palmer, exploited the timeshare trade. Kenneth Noye, who helped launder the Brinks Mat gold, came in 1996 after murdering Simon Cameron.
He was arrested two years later near Cádiz. Violence among British crooks emerged in 1990 when Great Train robber Charlie Wilson was shot dead in his Marbella villa. Two killings in 2002, of Irish gangster Michael McGuinness and Briton Scott Bradfield, showed the escalation in gang violence. McGuinness was found in the boot of a car in Málaga. Bradfield's body appeared in two trunks near Torremolinos.
Wednesday 2 August 2006
Gangland drug murder suspect held after swoop
By Tom Brady
Wednesday August 02 2006
Gardai detain five men during seizure of a €2.5m cannabis haul
THE prime suspect for a gangland murder in Dublin last May was being questioned last night after the seizure of €2.5m of cannabis resin.
He was one of five men detained by detectives from the Garda organised crime unit after the interception of the haul, which belonged to a top gangland criminal. The seizure was part of Operation Oak, a special crackdown on the activities of the gang boss. The find was hailed last night as a serious financial blow to the criminal, who is responsible for large-scale drug trafficking in the capital as well as a series of armed robberies that netted more than €2m for the gang in Dublin and surrounding counties.
Dealer
One of the five men in garda custody is the top suspect for the murder of drug dealer Paddy Harte (42), a father of five who was shot dead outside his home at Edenmore Avenue in Raheny last May.
Harte had been associated with the drugs-gang boss, but was later accused by him of operating his own drug distribution business "on the side" and he was murdered on the orders of the gang leader.
Harte was not known as a big player in any of the drugs gangs but, after his death, gardai discovered a number of properties in his name and called in the Criminal Assets Bureau.
The main suspect for the shooting was one of the first three men of the five to be detained on Monday. Gardai arrested the three after finding 350kg of cannabis being transferred from a van to a car at Brownsbarn, in the City West area of Dublin, off the Naas dual carriageway.
The drugs had earlier been loaded onto the van at the nearby Baldonnel business park and the men were kept under watch by members of the national surveillance unit as the shipment was moved again to prepare for distribution.
Gardai hailed the drug seizure as a serious financial blow to the number-one criminal in town
The garda interception was the result of intelligence gathered by members of the organised crime unit, which was set up late last year by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy to focus on key gangland figures.
The three men, aged 39, 38 and 21, were taken to Clondalkin Garda Station for questioning under drug-trafficking legislation, which allows them to be held without charge for up to seven days.
Follow-up
Two other men, aged 25 and 28, were arrested in follow-up searches and taken to Crumlin and Ballyfermot stations for questioning.
Gardai believe that the drug shipment arrived in the country recently through Dublin Port and was intended for distribution on the streets of north and west Dublin.
The value of the seizure was estimated to be around €2.5m, depending on the outcome of forensic analysis of the shipment.
The find was the latest in a series of setbacks to man whom Operation Oak is targeting. In one of these, last April the organised crime unit and the emergency response unit foiled his gang's plans to snatch an €80,000 payroll from a firm in Balbriggan, north Dublin.
In May, a close associate of the gang boss was arrested after the discovery of a cocaine-processing plant in a house near Swords, Co Dublin.
Senior detectives said the target had established himself as the "number-one criminal in town".
Members of the gang are also suspected of being linked to a ton of marijuana recovered by gardai on the M1 motorway last November, and to previous drug seizures in Skerries and Ballyfermot.
- Tom Brady
Wednesday August 02 2006
Gardai detain five men during seizure of a €2.5m cannabis haul
THE prime suspect for a gangland murder in Dublin last May was being questioned last night after the seizure of €2.5m of cannabis resin.
He was one of five men detained by detectives from the Garda organised crime unit after the interception of the haul, which belonged to a top gangland criminal. The seizure was part of Operation Oak, a special crackdown on the activities of the gang boss. The find was hailed last night as a serious financial blow to the criminal, who is responsible for large-scale drug trafficking in the capital as well as a series of armed robberies that netted more than €2m for the gang in Dublin and surrounding counties.
Dealer
One of the five men in garda custody is the top suspect for the murder of drug dealer Paddy Harte (42), a father of five who was shot dead outside his home at Edenmore Avenue in Raheny last May.
Harte had been associated with the drugs-gang boss, but was later accused by him of operating his own drug distribution business "on the side" and he was murdered on the orders of the gang leader.
Harte was not known as a big player in any of the drugs gangs but, after his death, gardai discovered a number of properties in his name and called in the Criminal Assets Bureau.
The main suspect for the shooting was one of the first three men of the five to be detained on Monday. Gardai arrested the three after finding 350kg of cannabis being transferred from a van to a car at Brownsbarn, in the City West area of Dublin, off the Naas dual carriageway.
The drugs had earlier been loaded onto the van at the nearby Baldonnel business park and the men were kept under watch by members of the national surveillance unit as the shipment was moved again to prepare for distribution.
Gardai hailed the drug seizure as a serious financial blow to the number-one criminal in town
The garda interception was the result of intelligence gathered by members of the organised crime unit, which was set up late last year by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy to focus on key gangland figures.
The three men, aged 39, 38 and 21, were taken to Clondalkin Garda Station for questioning under drug-trafficking legislation, which allows them to be held without charge for up to seven days.
Follow-up
Two other men, aged 25 and 28, were arrested in follow-up searches and taken to Crumlin and Ballyfermot stations for questioning.
Gardai believe that the drug shipment arrived in the country recently through Dublin Port and was intended for distribution on the streets of north and west Dublin.
The value of the seizure was estimated to be around €2.5m, depending on the outcome of forensic analysis of the shipment.
The find was the latest in a series of setbacks to man whom Operation Oak is targeting. In one of these, last April the organised crime unit and the emergency response unit foiled his gang's plans to snatch an €80,000 payroll from a firm in Balbriggan, north Dublin.
In May, a close associate of the gang boss was arrested after the discovery of a cocaine-processing plant in a house near Swords, Co Dublin.
Senior detectives said the target had established himself as the "number-one criminal in town".
Members of the gang are also suspected of being linked to a ton of marijuana recovered by gardai on the M1 motorway last November, and to previous drug seizures in Skerries and Ballyfermot.
- Tom Brady
Sunday 23 July 2006
Flying too close to the sun on Costa del Crime
By Liam Collins
Sunday July 23 2006
TANNED girls in scanty bikinis strolled by in the intense early afternoon sunshine with an air of unconcern as reporters and photographers jostled outside the Palacio de Justicia in the teeming Spanish resort of Torrevieja.
The media was gathered to cover the latest episode in what was recently described by the broadcaster Trevor McDonald as the "Costa del Crime".
The latest story involves the grisly fate of two vicious Dublin crime bosses Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg, once members of "The Westies" crime gang, whose bodies had just been dug from underneath six tons of quick-setting concrete in an industrial estate about ten miles outside the town.
When Irish detectives pinpointed the location of their bodies with deadly accuracy the second last piece of the murder mystery fell into place.
Now we were waiting for Anthony 'Tony' Armstrong, a burly, tanned Dubliner who once rented the warehouse beside which the bodies were found to be brought before the court. Armstrong, known as 'Big Tony', comes from Finglas in Dublin and, while known to police at home and in Spain, was not considered a major player in the latest Costa crime drama until he was arrested by Spanish police.
As we waited for him to arrive we chatted, as the tourists walked in the sweltering heat between the bright blue Med and the huge sprawling market which goes on every Friday in the streets at the back of the town.
"I like it here," says Aoife Doyle, who is originally from Dublin and is now news editor of a freesheet called The Coast Rider which covers the activities of the ex-pats in the sprawling 'urbanisations' spreading out along the coasts from Torrevieja.
"The Irish are normally very quiet," she says, "crime is not as bad as it is often portrayed."
You would be inclined to agree with her when you sit outside The Judge's Chambers, an Irish bar on the outskirts of Torrevieja which is owned by John Gilligan's wife, Geraldine. The patrons having an evening beer are mostly Irish and English holiday-makers who rarely come into the town. As they play with their children in the little playground beside the pub it is hard to square their lives with the final fate of Shane Coates, 27, and Stephen Sugg, 31.
The pair of Dublin gangsters were last seen in January 2004 when they told their girlfriends one night that they were "going out for an hour". They never came back and were eventually reported missing two weeks later.
There were reports that they had "faked their own deaths" to escape the retribution of another drugs lord - possibly the one who had killed Stephen Sugg's brother Bernard the year before.
But last week that theory was blown to bits.
Now rumours of Russian and Irish Mafias running prostitution and drugs rackets along this once-beautiful coast are rife.
The flight from Dublin to Alicante airport is just over two hours. A normal holiday destination, you might think. Most people would know somebody else on the flight. Then into a hired car and down the highway to Torrevieja, a favoured destination with British and Irish tourists in search of the sun and an inexpensive way of life. The chaotic town has a frontier-like appearance. The old houses have been demolished and replaced with high-rise apartments and resturants lining the promenade. But it has a lively late-night feel and along Bar Street nobody intends going to sleep much before 8am when the town closes down and recovers for a few hours in the early morning before starting all over again.
But the old town of Torrevieja remains Spanish. It is outside in the 'urbanisations' that you find the new arrivals - the ex-pat Irish and British who are said to total about 100,000 in number.
You can see that fortunes are being made from residential development. Cranes stretch along the skyline, like a mirror image of Celtic Tiger Dublin.
This is a boom town and this is where Coates and Sugg came in search of easy money in their buiness, the drugs business.
Once upon a time there were a bunch of criminals who headed off to the Costa del Sol to avoid the authorities and the prying eyes of the media.
These rich businessmen were chased down the Golden Mile in Marbella by an intrepid RTE reporter for failing to pay their taxes or buying cattle in the West of Ireland and then reneging on their debts to the local farmers.
Now the heartland of the Irish criminal fraternity has moved up the coast to the province of Alicante. You just know when you look at the profiles of Shane Coates and Stephen Suggs that they were destined to die young. In their hard eyes you can see the ruthless hardness that comes from the mean streets of Corduff in the wilderness of west Dublin where they grew up to be bad boys who adopted the gangland moniker of 'The Westies'.
The housing estates of west Dublin is just like a poor man's version of the urbanisations of Torrevieja where they came to try to muscle in on the drugs trade they had once plied at home but which had become a bit too hot to handle as their gang was torn apart by feuds and death. They took the brutal name from a violent gang of Irish emigrants in New York who mostly ended up dead. And in their heart of darkness and in the poker-faced profiles of these young men, Coates and Sugg, you can see the same destiny written over their hard, unforgiving features. But there is always someone with a more vicious streak waiting in the shade to catch those who sail too close to the sun.
They met their fate in an industrial complex in Catral, a small picturesque village about 10 miles from Torrevieja. They were shot in the head, their bodies unceremoniously stuffed into plastic bags and dumped in a hole seven-foot deep just to the side of the warehouse. A layer of earth was quickly shovelled into the grave and then it was filled in with six foot of quick-setting concrete.
A small corrugated iron shed now occupies the site beside the warehouse, nobody knows whether it was built before or after the burial.
But Grade One Garda intelligence last week led to the finding of their bodies.
The story is that the 'boys' met their fate after a drug deal "that went wrong". Some say they stole a kilo of heroin from a more powerful drug lord, others that they were trying to muscle in on a drugs operation controlled from Dublin and prison by the jailed thug John Gilligan.
They are just two more stastics in the litany of criminals who have been bumped off in vicious feuds over turf, money and women in the last couple of years. The only difference is that they met their fate in the sunshine of the 'Costa del Crime' and that gives the story a new twist, a touch of glamour.
There is glamour to be found out here on the gold coast.
Between the teeming appallingly-planned town of Torrevieja and the bright-blue sea are million-pound villas where the rich Spanish from Madrid come down this time of year.
Further out in the 'urbanisations' you find the home of Tony Armstrong, the man who has been held in connection with the double murder of Coates and Sugg. In the end, he didn't arrive at the Palacio de Justicia in Torrevieja. Instead he was taken to a small town about 50 kilometres away where he was brought before a magistrate. He was remanded and is now facing up to two years in jail as he awaits trial. He is due before a magistrate to make a declaration on his guilt or innocence tomorrow.
Armstrong, 35, comes originally from Finglas in Dublin but has been living out here for five or six years with his girlfriend.
His parents joined him in recent times at his €550,000 villa in Los Balcones, about 20 minutes drive from the centre of Torrevieja.
Nobody answers the door when you push the intercom at Armstrong's villa. But after the second ring a big dog bounds through the yard and slams against the ornate wooden door. Casual callers are not wanted this evening.
Little enough is known here in Torrevieja about 'Tony' Armstrong, except that he comes from Dublin. According to police sources he rented the warehouse in Catral. He is said to have kept expensive cars and boats there.
According to local Spanish reports he was questioned by Spanish police investigating a stolen car ring but wasn't charged with anything. Big, with black barbwire tatoos around his well-muscled arms he doesn't look like a man to mess with.
As it happens we had waited in vain for him to come before the court in Torrevieja. On Friday evening we learned that he had been brought to court in the small village of Orihuela, about 50 kilometres distant and the administrative capital of Los Balcones, where he has his villa.
Although we dash out there to try to find him that court is closed up. He's been gone 20 minutes we're told.
Back in the holiday resort town of Torrevieja the fate of Coates and Sugg is not exciting that much interest. They're more concerned with the price of a beer in the Irish bars, which is always more expensive than in the local establishments. Most of the holiday-makers who come for the nightlife are not even aware of their short and, in many ways, tragic lives.
But that's life and death on the 'Costa del Crime' the same way as it's life and death in the sprawling suburbs of Dublin.
In many ways the similarities to Dublin is what seems to make Torrevieja so attractive to the criminals. They live in villas rather than cramped Corpo houses, but the urban sprawl has the same feel. There's concrete under your feet everywhere you look. It appears to be always half finished, just like the estates where these boys grew up to be men. But it also has the sun and the sea and all the evidence points to the fact that Torrevieja is the centre of the 'Costa del Crime'.
It is here with the milling tourists that the drug deals are done and it is on the flights in and out of Alicante that the gangs who control them pass with ease.
What happened last week when the last resting place of the once powerful Dublin drugs gang members was uncovered was macabre, but according to one resident crime along this coast is no worse than at home and if you're careful you'll hardly ever encounter it.
But Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg couldn't avoid trouble and eventually trouble caught up with them.
- Liam Collins
Sunday July 23 2006
TANNED girls in scanty bikinis strolled by in the intense early afternoon sunshine with an air of unconcern as reporters and photographers jostled outside the Palacio de Justicia in the teeming Spanish resort of Torrevieja.
The media was gathered to cover the latest episode in what was recently described by the broadcaster Trevor McDonald as the "Costa del Crime".
The latest story involves the grisly fate of two vicious Dublin crime bosses Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg, once members of "The Westies" crime gang, whose bodies had just been dug from underneath six tons of quick-setting concrete in an industrial estate about ten miles outside the town.
When Irish detectives pinpointed the location of their bodies with deadly accuracy the second last piece of the murder mystery fell into place.
Now we were waiting for Anthony 'Tony' Armstrong, a burly, tanned Dubliner who once rented the warehouse beside which the bodies were found to be brought before the court. Armstrong, known as 'Big Tony', comes from Finglas in Dublin and, while known to police at home and in Spain, was not considered a major player in the latest Costa crime drama until he was arrested by Spanish police.
As we waited for him to arrive we chatted, as the tourists walked in the sweltering heat between the bright blue Med and the huge sprawling market which goes on every Friday in the streets at the back of the town.
"I like it here," says Aoife Doyle, who is originally from Dublin and is now news editor of a freesheet called The Coast Rider which covers the activities of the ex-pats in the sprawling 'urbanisations' spreading out along the coasts from Torrevieja.
"The Irish are normally very quiet," she says, "crime is not as bad as it is often portrayed."
You would be inclined to agree with her when you sit outside The Judge's Chambers, an Irish bar on the outskirts of Torrevieja which is owned by John Gilligan's wife, Geraldine. The patrons having an evening beer are mostly Irish and English holiday-makers who rarely come into the town. As they play with their children in the little playground beside the pub it is hard to square their lives with the final fate of Shane Coates, 27, and Stephen Sugg, 31.
The pair of Dublin gangsters were last seen in January 2004 when they told their girlfriends one night that they were "going out for an hour". They never came back and were eventually reported missing two weeks later.
There were reports that they had "faked their own deaths" to escape the retribution of another drugs lord - possibly the one who had killed Stephen Sugg's brother Bernard the year before.
But last week that theory was blown to bits.
Now rumours of Russian and Irish Mafias running prostitution and drugs rackets along this once-beautiful coast are rife.
The flight from Dublin to Alicante airport is just over two hours. A normal holiday destination, you might think. Most people would know somebody else on the flight. Then into a hired car and down the highway to Torrevieja, a favoured destination with British and Irish tourists in search of the sun and an inexpensive way of life. The chaotic town has a frontier-like appearance. The old houses have been demolished and replaced with high-rise apartments and resturants lining the promenade. But it has a lively late-night feel and along Bar Street nobody intends going to sleep much before 8am when the town closes down and recovers for a few hours in the early morning before starting all over again.
But the old town of Torrevieja remains Spanish. It is outside in the 'urbanisations' that you find the new arrivals - the ex-pat Irish and British who are said to total about 100,000 in number.
You can see that fortunes are being made from residential development. Cranes stretch along the skyline, like a mirror image of Celtic Tiger Dublin.
This is a boom town and this is where Coates and Sugg came in search of easy money in their buiness, the drugs business.
Once upon a time there were a bunch of criminals who headed off to the Costa del Sol to avoid the authorities and the prying eyes of the media.
These rich businessmen were chased down the Golden Mile in Marbella by an intrepid RTE reporter for failing to pay their taxes or buying cattle in the West of Ireland and then reneging on their debts to the local farmers.
Now the heartland of the Irish criminal fraternity has moved up the coast to the province of Alicante. You just know when you look at the profiles of Shane Coates and Stephen Suggs that they were destined to die young. In their hard eyes you can see the ruthless hardness that comes from the mean streets of Corduff in the wilderness of west Dublin where they grew up to be bad boys who adopted the gangland moniker of 'The Westies'.
The housing estates of west Dublin is just like a poor man's version of the urbanisations of Torrevieja where they came to try to muscle in on the drugs trade they had once plied at home but which had become a bit too hot to handle as their gang was torn apart by feuds and death. They took the brutal name from a violent gang of Irish emigrants in New York who mostly ended up dead. And in their heart of darkness and in the poker-faced profiles of these young men, Coates and Sugg, you can see the same destiny written over their hard, unforgiving features. But there is always someone with a more vicious streak waiting in the shade to catch those who sail too close to the sun.
They met their fate in an industrial complex in Catral, a small picturesque village about 10 miles from Torrevieja. They were shot in the head, their bodies unceremoniously stuffed into plastic bags and dumped in a hole seven-foot deep just to the side of the warehouse. A layer of earth was quickly shovelled into the grave and then it was filled in with six foot of quick-setting concrete.
A small corrugated iron shed now occupies the site beside the warehouse, nobody knows whether it was built before or after the burial.
But Grade One Garda intelligence last week led to the finding of their bodies.
The story is that the 'boys' met their fate after a drug deal "that went wrong". Some say they stole a kilo of heroin from a more powerful drug lord, others that they were trying to muscle in on a drugs operation controlled from Dublin and prison by the jailed thug John Gilligan.
They are just two more stastics in the litany of criminals who have been bumped off in vicious feuds over turf, money and women in the last couple of years. The only difference is that they met their fate in the sunshine of the 'Costa del Crime' and that gives the story a new twist, a touch of glamour.
There is glamour to be found out here on the gold coast.
Between the teeming appallingly-planned town of Torrevieja and the bright-blue sea are million-pound villas where the rich Spanish from Madrid come down this time of year.
Further out in the 'urbanisations' you find the home of Tony Armstrong, the man who has been held in connection with the double murder of Coates and Sugg. In the end, he didn't arrive at the Palacio de Justicia in Torrevieja. Instead he was taken to a small town about 50 kilometres away where he was brought before a magistrate. He was remanded and is now facing up to two years in jail as he awaits trial. He is due before a magistrate to make a declaration on his guilt or innocence tomorrow.
Armstrong, 35, comes originally from Finglas in Dublin but has been living out here for five or six years with his girlfriend.
His parents joined him in recent times at his €550,000 villa in Los Balcones, about 20 minutes drive from the centre of Torrevieja.
Nobody answers the door when you push the intercom at Armstrong's villa. But after the second ring a big dog bounds through the yard and slams against the ornate wooden door. Casual callers are not wanted this evening.
Little enough is known here in Torrevieja about 'Tony' Armstrong, except that he comes from Dublin. According to police sources he rented the warehouse in Catral. He is said to have kept expensive cars and boats there.
According to local Spanish reports he was questioned by Spanish police investigating a stolen car ring but wasn't charged with anything. Big, with black barbwire tatoos around his well-muscled arms he doesn't look like a man to mess with.
As it happens we had waited in vain for him to come before the court in Torrevieja. On Friday evening we learned that he had been brought to court in the small village of Orihuela, about 50 kilometres distant and the administrative capital of Los Balcones, where he has his villa.
Although we dash out there to try to find him that court is closed up. He's been gone 20 minutes we're told.
Back in the holiday resort town of Torrevieja the fate of Coates and Sugg is not exciting that much interest. They're more concerned with the price of a beer in the Irish bars, which is always more expensive than in the local establishments. Most of the holiday-makers who come for the nightlife are not even aware of their short and, in many ways, tragic lives.
But that's life and death on the 'Costa del Crime' the same way as it's life and death in the sprawling suburbs of Dublin.
In many ways the similarities to Dublin is what seems to make Torrevieja so attractive to the criminals. They live in villas rather than cramped Corpo houses, but the urban sprawl has the same feel. There's concrete under your feet everywhere you look. It appears to be always half finished, just like the estates where these boys grew up to be men. But it also has the sun and the sea and all the evidence points to the fact that Torrevieja is the centre of the 'Costa del Crime'.
It is here with the milling tourists that the drug deals are done and it is on the flights in and out of Alicante that the gangs who control them pass with ease.
What happened last week when the last resting place of the once powerful Dublin drugs gang members was uncovered was macabre, but according to one resident crime along this coast is no worse than at home and if you're careful you'll hardly ever encounter it.
But Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg couldn't avoid trouble and eventually trouble caught up with them.
- Liam Collins
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