irish independent
By By TOM BRADY
Monday May 29 2000
THIRTEEN gangs control organised crime in the State, according to a major security report to be placed before a meeting of EU justice and home...
THIRTEEN gangs control organised crime in the State, according to a major security report to be placed before a meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers in Brussels today.
The report reveals how seven of the crime groups are using legitimate enterprises such as a coal retailing business, a construction firm, a wholesale outfit, pubs, shops and gambling as a front to launder their huge profits from lawbreaking.
And it says that the continued buoyancy of the economy generally and the property market in particular has provided the godfathers of crime with increased opportunities to launder the multi-million pound cash gains from drug trafficking, armed robbery and computer component theft.
But it concludes that the measures adopted by the Government and the Gardai over the past four years to combat organised crime have significantly tipped the scales against the big gang bosses.
The study of organised crime in all EU member states has been drawn up for today's meeting, which is being attended by Justice Minister John O'Donoghue whose policies receive a favourable mention in the report.
The report discloses that about 62pc of all crime gangs are located in Dublin while another 13pc are based in the Border regions. Three-fifths of the gangs have established contacts outside Ireland, mainly because of the activities of a small number of Irish criminals now involved in drug trafficking in Europe and the international network set up to dispose of stolen computer components.
The report estimates that a total of 1,202 disclosures of suspicious financial transactions with a value in excess of £125m were reported in 1998. About half were associated with organised crime.
But despite their sophistication and contacts, there was no evidence that any of the groups had influence over the judicial, executive or legislative arms of the State.
Drug-related crimes and armed robberies were the main activities of the big gangs and the volume of drugs seized in the south west in the past had indicated that Ireland had operated as a transit country. One particular cocaine seizure in 1998 was given as an example.
The report pointed out that some groups based in Dublin and the north east were heavily involved in smuggling cigarettes with one gang operating on an international basis and linked to the supply of cigarettes to a range of member States.
It is significant, according to the report, that gambling, prostitution and child pornography in Ireland does not occur in the organised crime sector.
And it highlights the impact of the Criminal Assets Bureau and the introduction of a witness security programme in playing important roles in the efforts to combat organised crime.
- By TOM BRADY
Monday, 29 May 2000
Saturday, 6 May 2000
Drugs link in triple murder at seaside
Irish Republic in shock after bodies of young men thought to be small-time dealers found tortured, butchered and burned in Dutch flat
John Mullin Ireland correspondent
The Guardian, Saturday 6 May 2000 02.02 BST
Article history
Police in the Netherlands were last night still struggling formally to identify three young Irishmen butchered in an expensive apartment near the Hague in an apparently drug-related massacre.
The Irish Republic, in the grip of a bloody turf war over the burgeoning drugs trade, is in shock. Although speculation suggests that the men, at most small-scale dealers, fell foul of Colombian or eastern European drugs gangs, fears are growing that Irish drugs barons are responsible.
The men, all in their 20s and from the west of Ireland, were tortured and then shot. Their bodies were piled in the bathroom, doused in petrol and set on fire to conceal evidence.
Two bodies were dismembered with knives. One is believed to have contained cavity filler, used to fill gaps between walls and window frames.
A police source said: "The victims were badly burned. They were mutilated and unrecognisable."
Detectives in the Netherlands are embarrassed at their failure at first to realise that the men were murdered rather than victims of a blaze early last Saturday in the fifth floor flat at Scheveningen, a well-heeled seaside resort five miles from the capital. They fear they have missed vital evidence.
Dental records and blood samples from relatives were among material passed to Dutch police yesterday. But it might be Monday before they can officially confirm the victims' identities.
They found amphetamines and a tablet-pressing machine in the flat. They believe two of the men were manufacturing amphetamines and ecstasy. The third was visiting his elder brother on holiday.
One of the victims was known to the garda national drugs unit. But detectives are working on the theory that they were small dealers who got out of their depth.
The Netherlands is the vital source of supply of most drugs to the republic. Gardai and Dutch police have conducted 16 operations against drugs criminals in both countries in the past six months.
One theory yesterday was that the two men, to boost their own operations, passed information to gardai about rivals' shipments. There were two major interceptions recently.
Among five passports found in the charred remains of apartment 1058 were those of the three victims. Although convinced of their identities, Dutch police have not formally named them.
Damien Monaghan, 25, was the eldest of 11 children from a housing estate in Cloughleigh, Co Clare. He moved to the Netherlands six years ago, and rented the two-bedroom flat last year. It cost £600 a month, expensive by Dutch standards.
Monaghan lived with Vincent Costello, 29, from Bansha, near Cahir in Co Tipperary. Costello had been in the Netherlands for two years but returned home regularly.
His younger brother Morgan, 22, who worked in a meat plant at Cahir, was visiting him on a week's holiday. His parents and three sisters had expected him home on Tuesday.
Dutch police are also desperate to trace Vanessa Cope, 27, from Newry, Co Down, and are liaising with the RUC as well as garda. Her British passport was with the four Irish passports found, and they fear she too has been murdered.
But one of the passports, that of John Nunan, 27, from Fermoy, Co Cork, turned out to be stolen. Mr Nunan, who reported it missing two years ago, was eliminated after speaking to gardai on Thursday.
The three executions bring the republic's drug-related murder toll to 20 in as many months. Republican paramilitaries have been involved in several of the killings, most recently last weekend.
The latest tally compares with 11 drug-related murders in the two years before the shooting of the journalist Veronica Guerin in June 1996. Gangs were then trying to expand their empires after the assassination in August 1994 of the crime boss Martin Cahill.
The killings stopped when tough legislation was passed after Ms Guerin's death. Armed with new powers, garda broke up the drugs gang she had been investigating. It has big operations in Amsterdam.
But the officers' success left a power vacuum. Would-be barons are vying again to take over parts of the highly lucrative trade, sparking violent confrontations.
Irish detectives say some murders are related to turf wars. Other victims are accused of double-crosses.
Two of the most horrific recent killings were of Darren Carey, 20, and Patrick Murray, 19, minor criminals working as couriers. They had flown to Amsterdam to collect £30,000 worth of heroin, but Murray was arrested on his way home last November.
Police seized the drugs. Their boss, a notorious figure in Dublin's underworld, was furious. Murray was kidnapped, stripped, tortured and shot in the back of the head. Carey was also killed. Their bodies were found in the Grand Canal, near Newcastle, Co Dublin, three months ago.
Paramilitary murders are mostly seen as "punishment" attacks, cracking down on drugs use, a policy which has won republicans strong support in many badly afflicted inner-city areas. But some dealers are thought to be executed over a failure to hand over a cut of their takings.
The Irish National Liberation Army last Saturday shot dead Pat Neville, 31, a father of six, in Dublin to avenge the machete murder of its volunteer Patrick Campbell, 22, who died in the city last October after a brutal fight with a drugs gang. The INLA claimed that it had been seeking to stamp out drugs use, but detectives instead suggested the fight began after a row over money.
The IRA is suspected of killing Tommy Byrne, 41, a drugs dealer, six days ago, shooting him in the head as he drank outside a Dublin pub. But it appears he was murdered for fighting with the IRA's officer commanding in Dublin, rather than to make an example of him over his criminal activities.
The IRA last year killed two Northern Ireland drugs barons, Brendan Fegan, 24, and Paul Downey, 37. They were big ecstasy dealers. The Dutch police, the Garda and the RUC, aided by Interpol, are expected to investigate any links between them and the men murdered in Scheveningen.
Thursday, 12 August 1999
Gardai find £1.5m ecstasy tablets after van chase
Irish Independent
By EUGENE MOLONEY
Thursday August 12 1999
ECSTASY tablets with a street value of up to £1.5m were seized in an early morning swoop by gardai yesterday.The discovery of 100,000 tablets of the drug, the biggest ecstasy haul so far this year, follows a six-week surveillance operation by the National Drugs Unit who had been tracking members of two drug gangs, one on Dublin's northside and the other on the southside.
The drugs were uncovered in Dublin in the back of a van which at one stage rammed a Garda car pursuing it through rush hour traffic.
The van, which was stopped by gardai at Ballymount near the M50 at about 9am, had earlier set off from a location on Dublin's northside where gardai believe the drugs were loaded.
The tablets bearing the name ``Mitsubishi'' were almost certainly destined for Dublin's club circuit where they sell for between £12 to £15 per tablet. Gardai believe they were brought into Ireland from either Holland or Germany by a relatively small-time gang on Dublin's northside who have moved into the business of importing and distributing drugs in the capital recently.
They sold the drugs on to a southside gang who would have sold the drug to a network of dealers.
Three men found in the van when it was stopped were all known to gardai. Their ages range from 19 to 29 and they are believed to be from the southside. Last night they were still being held at Blanchardstown garda station under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act which allows them to be held for up to seven days.
The biggest haul of ecstasy was last November when more than 250,000 tablets were found in the boot of a car in Dublin.
Although most of the supplies of ecstasy are brought in from countries such as Germany and Holland, gardai fear it may not be long before an underworld factory capable of manufacturing ecstasy and its constituents known as MDMA is established in Ireland.
The current spate of different gangs supplying ecstasy in Dublin owes its origins to the break-up of most of the gang responsible for the death of Veronica Guerin.
This left a void in the drugs underworld which was filled for a period by the drug activities of Brendan `Speedy' Fagan and his associate Paddy Farrell . However their subsequent murders left a fresh void which various smaller drug operators have attempted to fill in recent months.
Gardai believe the gang responsible for yesterday's seizure may well have received their consignment from the same people who supplied the Dublin drug gangs of the mid 1990s. Detectives from the National Drugs Unit were yesterday in touch with their counterparts in the Netherlands.
- EUGENE MOLONEY
By EUGENE MOLONEY
Thursday August 12 1999
ECSTASY tablets with a street value of up to £1.5m were seized in an early morning swoop by gardai yesterday.The discovery of 100,000 tablets of the drug, the biggest ecstasy haul so far this year, follows a six-week surveillance operation by the National Drugs Unit who had been tracking members of two drug gangs, one on Dublin's northside and the other on the southside.
The drugs were uncovered in Dublin in the back of a van which at one stage rammed a Garda car pursuing it through rush hour traffic.
The van, which was stopped by gardai at Ballymount near the M50 at about 9am, had earlier set off from a location on Dublin's northside where gardai believe the drugs were loaded.
The tablets bearing the name ``Mitsubishi'' were almost certainly destined for Dublin's club circuit where they sell for between £12 to £15 per tablet. Gardai believe they were brought into Ireland from either Holland or Germany by a relatively small-time gang on Dublin's northside who have moved into the business of importing and distributing drugs in the capital recently.
They sold the drugs on to a southside gang who would have sold the drug to a network of dealers.
Three men found in the van when it was stopped were all known to gardai. Their ages range from 19 to 29 and they are believed to be from the southside. Last night they were still being held at Blanchardstown garda station under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act which allows them to be held for up to seven days.
The biggest haul of ecstasy was last November when more than 250,000 tablets were found in the boot of a car in Dublin.
Although most of the supplies of ecstasy are brought in from countries such as Germany and Holland, gardai fear it may not be long before an underworld factory capable of manufacturing ecstasy and its constituents known as MDMA is established in Ireland.
The current spate of different gangs supplying ecstasy in Dublin owes its origins to the break-up of most of the gang responsible for the death of Veronica Guerin.
This left a void in the drugs underworld which was filled for a period by the drug activities of Brendan `Speedy' Fagan and his associate Paddy Farrell . However their subsequent murders left a fresh void which various smaller drug operators have attempted to fill in recent months.
Gardai believe the gang responsible for yesterday's seizure may well have received their consignment from the same people who supplied the Dublin drug gangs of the mid 1990s. Detectives from the National Drugs Unit were yesterday in touch with their counterparts in the Netherlands.
- EUGENE MOLONEY
Friday, 30 July 1999
Guerin case man jailed
Amelia Gentleman
The Guardian, Friday 30 July 1999 01.58 BST
A second man was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for the murder of investigative journalist Veronica Guerin who had exposed Dublin's drug-dealing underworld. She was shot dead in her car in June 1996 as she waited at traffic lights.
Drug dealer Brian Meehan, 36, was found guilty of the murder of the Sunday Independent crime correspondent by the special criminal court in Dublin.
Meehan was the driver of the motorbike carrying her killer.
He was also found guilty of 14 offences relating to drugs and firearms.
Paul Ward was jailed for life last year for the same attack, but the search for the rest of the gang continues.
Wednesday, 28 July 1999
Major city drug gang smashed in £750,000 seizure
Irish Independent
Major city drug gang smashed in £750,000 seizure
By TOM BRADY Security Editor
Wednesday July 28 1999
GARDAI believe they have cracked a major Dublin city drug trafficking gang after seizing a £750,000 consignment in a park.Members of the garda drugs unit in Clontarf, backed up by the national drugs unit, uncovered the haul after a week-long surveillance operation in the capital.
Detectives stopped a man who is suspected of being a close associate of a leading north inner-city drug trafficker in St Anne's Park in Raheny and detained him for questioning.
They recovered a haul of cannabis, cocaine and heroin estimated to be worth £750,000 on the streets.
Last night a man and woman were both being questioned by detectives at Clontarf under drug trafficking legislation after their periods of detention were extended.
Gardai said the surveillance of suspects followed weeks of inquiries involving the local unit in Clontarf.
Meanwhile, a routine car search yesterday saw the seizure of cannabis with an estimated street value of £250,000.
Gardai made the find shortly before 8pm outside the village of Rathmore, Co Kerry.
Officers said the driver of a car parked outside the village had been acting suspiciously and an examination of the boot of the car revealed 25kg of cannabis.
A 36-year-old man with an address in Kerry was arrested and is being held in custody.
- TOM BRADY Security Editor
Major city drug gang smashed in £750,000 seizure
By TOM BRADY Security Editor
Wednesday July 28 1999
GARDAI believe they have cracked a major Dublin city drug trafficking gang after seizing a £750,000 consignment in a park.Members of the garda drugs unit in Clontarf, backed up by the national drugs unit, uncovered the haul after a week-long surveillance operation in the capital.
Detectives stopped a man who is suspected of being a close associate of a leading north inner-city drug trafficker in St Anne's Park in Raheny and detained him for questioning.
They recovered a haul of cannabis, cocaine and heroin estimated to be worth £750,000 on the streets.
Last night a man and woman were both being questioned by detectives at Clontarf under drug trafficking legislation after their periods of detention were extended.
Gardai said the surveillance of suspects followed weeks of inquiries involving the local unit in Clontarf.
Meanwhile, a routine car search yesterday saw the seizure of cannabis with an estimated street value of £250,000.
Gardai made the find shortly before 8pm outside the village of Rathmore, Co Kerry.
Officers said the driver of a car parked outside the village had been acting suspiciously and an examination of the boot of the car revealed 25kg of cannabis.
A 36-year-old man with an address in Kerry was arrested and is being held in custody.
- TOM BRADY Security Editor
Wednesday, 7 July 1999
Witness too afraid to refuse orders from drug baron
Irish Independent
By DIARMAID MacDERMOTT
Wednesday July 07 1999
STATE witness Russell Warren told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he continued working for a drugs gang leader after the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin because he was afraid. STATE witness Russell Warren told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he continued working for a drugs gang leader after the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin because he was afraid.
Warren admitted that his activity in delivering hundreds of thousands of pounds to the continent for the gang leader, Mr A, ``became more intense'' in the months after the journalist's murder.
Questioned why he continued working for Mr A who allegedly ordered the murder, Warren replied: ``I was afraid not to. If I had left or tried to leave I don't think I'd be sitting here today. You can't say no to him.''
Warren has told the court he was the ``bagman'' for Mr A and provided the stolen motorbike used in the murder of Ms Guerin. He also said that the bike was collected on the day of the murder by Brian Meehan, who is on trial for the Guerin murder.
It was the nineteenth day of the trial of Brian Meehan (34), of no fixed abode, and formerly of Clifton Court, Dublin and Stanaway Road, Crumlin, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Guerin (36) at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, on June 26, 1996.
Meehan also denies sixteen other charges alleging that he unlawfully imported cannabis resin into the State on various dates between July 1, 1994 and October 6, 1996.
Cross-examined by Meehan's counsel, John McCrudden QC, Warren admitted that Meehan said to him during a conversation at a pub in Harold's Cross after the murder that Mr A ``had everybody in a mess because he had got Veronica Guerin killed''.
He also admitted that he was told to threaten two other friends of his that anyone who said anything about the stolen motorbike would be dead.
Warren said he believed Meehan was involved in the murder because he gave him the bike and because Meehan test drove the bike the night before the murder.
He said that no one had been paid for the bike which he identified as a motorbike gardai had recovered in parts from the river Liffey and which had been reassembled.
He said he did not know that anyone was going to be murdered when he followed a red Opel Calibra from Naas towards Dublin. Warren told Mr McCrudden that after he saw what happened he ``just felt sick. My legs would not work''.
Warren said that he had never been visited in prison by an official from the Department of Justice and said nobody had negotiated on his behalf.
The trial continues today.
- DIARMAID MacDERMOTT
By DIARMAID MacDERMOTT
Wednesday July 07 1999
STATE witness Russell Warren told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he continued working for a drugs gang leader after the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin because he was afraid. STATE witness Russell Warren told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he continued working for a drugs gang leader after the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin because he was afraid.
Warren admitted that his activity in delivering hundreds of thousands of pounds to the continent for the gang leader, Mr A, ``became more intense'' in the months after the journalist's murder.
Questioned why he continued working for Mr A who allegedly ordered the murder, Warren replied: ``I was afraid not to. If I had left or tried to leave I don't think I'd be sitting here today. You can't say no to him.''
Warren has told the court he was the ``bagman'' for Mr A and provided the stolen motorbike used in the murder of Ms Guerin. He also said that the bike was collected on the day of the murder by Brian Meehan, who is on trial for the Guerin murder.
It was the nineteenth day of the trial of Brian Meehan (34), of no fixed abode, and formerly of Clifton Court, Dublin and Stanaway Road, Crumlin, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Guerin (36) at Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin, on June 26, 1996.
Meehan also denies sixteen other charges alleging that he unlawfully imported cannabis resin into the State on various dates between July 1, 1994 and October 6, 1996.
Cross-examined by Meehan's counsel, John McCrudden QC, Warren admitted that Meehan said to him during a conversation at a pub in Harold's Cross after the murder that Mr A ``had everybody in a mess because he had got Veronica Guerin killed''.
He also admitted that he was told to threaten two other friends of his that anyone who said anything about the stolen motorbike would be dead.
Warren said he believed Meehan was involved in the murder because he gave him the bike and because Meehan test drove the bike the night before the murder.
He said that no one had been paid for the bike which he identified as a motorbike gardai had recovered in parts from the river Liffey and which had been reassembled.
He said he did not know that anyone was going to be murdered when he followed a red Opel Calibra from Naas towards Dublin. Warren told Mr McCrudden that after he saw what happened he ``just felt sick. My legs would not work''.
Warren said that he had never been visited in prison by an official from the Department of Justice and said nobody had negotiated on his behalf.
The trial continues today.
- DIARMAID MacDERMOTT
£100,000 seized in swoop on car of drug gang
Irish Independent
£100,000 seized in swoop on car of drug gang
By TOM BRADY
Wednesday July 07 1999
A MAJOR Dublin drug trafficker and four of his suspected associates were arrested by gardai last night for alleged money laundering. Detectives from the garda national drugs unit in Harcourt Square seized almost stg£100,000 in a swoop on a car in the centre of Dublin. Gardai believe the money was to have been used as a down payment to purchase a large consignment of drugs for importation to this country.The drug trafficker, who has been shot twice in the past few years by members of rival gangs, is from the southside of the capital and is a former associate of murdered gangland boss, Martin ``The General'' Cahill.
The five suspects were arrested when the car was intercepted by gardai following a lengthy surveillance operation in the city.
The five were detained under section two of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1994, which deals with money laundering.
They were being held for questioning early today at Store Street garda station.
- TOM BRADY
£100,000 seized in swoop on car of drug gang
By TOM BRADY
Wednesday July 07 1999
A MAJOR Dublin drug trafficker and four of his suspected associates were arrested by gardai last night for alleged money laundering. Detectives from the garda national drugs unit in Harcourt Square seized almost stg£100,000 in a swoop on a car in the centre of Dublin. Gardai believe the money was to have been used as a down payment to purchase a large consignment of drugs for importation to this country.The drug trafficker, who has been shot twice in the past few years by members of rival gangs, is from the southside of the capital and is a former associate of murdered gangland boss, Martin ``The General'' Cahill.
The five suspects were arrested when the car was intercepted by gardai following a lengthy surveillance operation in the city.
The five were detained under section two of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1994, which deals with money laundering.
They were being held for questioning early today at Store Street garda station.
- TOM BRADY
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