Gangster's bullet-proof BMW seized after chase
By Barry Duggan
Friday February 15 2008
GARDAI have seized a bullet-proof BMW worth €100,000 belonging to a leading member of one of the country's most dangerous criminal gangs after a high-speed car chase.
The driver of the car, who is a close relation to the vehicle's owner, was arrested following the pursuit after he failed to stop the high-performance vehicle at a garda checkpoint in Limerick city.
Officers also recovered a bullet-proof vest in the vehicle. The arrested man is likely to face charges in connection with the incident.
The top-of-the-range black BMW, which was fitted with bullet-proof glass at a cost of €100,000 to the owner, belongs to a leading member of the Dundon-McCarthy gang.
The car owner, who is behind bars, and the arrested driver remain a target for gangs based in the St Mary's Park area of the city.
The vehicle remains impounded following the high speed chase on Tuesday.
The driver of the vehicle who is in his early 20s is well known to Limerick gardai investigating ongoing criminal and gangland activity in the city.
He has just returned to Limerick from Spain where he was in the company of murdered Dublin criminal Paddy Doyle until days before he was shot dead. Doyle was shot dead in the Costa del Sol last week.
The Limerick man who returned to the city a fortnight ago has served three years for drug dealing has openly threatened to kill opposing members in Limerick city's ongoing feud. He was released from prison last November.
- Barry Duggan
Friday, 15 February 2008
Sunday, 10 February 2008
Doyle killed after warning from Turkish drug dealers
Sunday Tribune
He was a hard man in Crumlin and a hitman in Dublin . . . but he was way out of his depth in Spain
Mick McCaffrey, Security Editor
EARLY last October, gardai received an intelligence report from Spanish police about a dispute that had arisen between two Irish citizens and a Turkish crime syndicate on the Costa del Sol. The Guardia Civil had learned that two men named Frederick Thompson and Patrick Doyle had been warned that they would be murdered if they did not pay outstanding bills for a number of sizeable heroin shipments.
Thompson is said to have given two fingers to the bearer of the message, while Doyle laughed and said that he would personally kill anyone who threatened him.
Last Monday, Doyle was sitting in the passenger seat of his BMW X5 jeep in Estepona when he was ambushed by a number of gunmen who fired over two dozen shots from a machine pistol.
The 27-year-old managed to get out of the jeep and tried to run away but one of the gunmen, who wore no mask, calmly walked up to him and shot him twice in the head. Doyle was shot a total of 12 times.
Paddy Doyle is the latest Irish gangster to have died in Spain under the false belief that his fearsome reputation in this country would be enough to protect him when doing business with international drug traffickers.
A clear picture is only now beginning to emerge about the reasons for Doyle's clinical and coldblooded murder.
Freddie Thompson is one of the country's biggest criminals and is the leader of a Drimnaghbased drugs gang that has been involved in a bloody feud with a rival gang from Crumlin. At least 11 people have lost their lives since 2001 as a result of the feud.
Paddy Doyle was Thompson's hitman and enforcer-in-chief and was responsible for organising shipments of heroin and cocaine from Spain.
Doyle and Thompson were introduced to a Turkish family in London and for the past three years, the Turks have been supplying the Thompson gang with massive amounts of cheap heroin which is imported from Afghanistan.
Over the last 18 months, gardai have had considerable success in intercepting drugs shipments belonging to Thompson. The gang has lost millions of euro worth of revenue as a result of the seizures. Because of their financial straits, Thompson and Doyle had been reluctant to pay the Turks in Spain. This caused serious tensions to develop.
The Turks warned the two men that there would be repercussions if the bill was not settled and they were preparing to pay when a further shipment was seized near the Dublin docklands late last year.
The two Irish criminals then decided to hold off on paying until they could generate much-needed funds. Less than two weeks ago, Doyle was given a final warning, but he ignored it and met what was an inevitable fate.
THE murder of Patrick Doyle had no Irish involvement whatsoever, but it has the potential to be hugely significant in shaping the future gangland landscape here.
Doyle was probably the most violent and feared criminal operating in the capital and his presence was enough to deter the rival Crumlin gang from attempting to carry out attacks on Thompson gang members.
Gardai say that the Crumlin gang, which is led by a man serving a lengthy jail sentence, was so afraid that Doyle would come back to Dublin and hunt individual members down that it has effectively been on ceasefire.
With Doyle's demise, detectives now fear that this gang will attempt to reassert itself. This inevitably will result in the death toll rising further. Tensions in Crumlin and Drimnagh are already high after the attempted murder of 'The Viper' Martin Foley. One small incident might be enough to kick off a series of tit-for-tat killings.
Paddy Doyle had been based in Marbella since November 2005, when he fled Ireland after allegedly carrying out three murders in just two days.
His exile was not by choice. The convicted drug dealer made an amateur error after one of the killings and was facing immediate arrest if spotted by gardai.
Detectives say that on 15 November 2005, Doyle received a call on his mobile phone informing him that a member of the rival Crumlin gang was attending a Phil Collins concert at the Point theatre.
Along with another member of the Thompson gang, he picked up a Glock pistol and followed 27year-old Noel Roche to Clontarf and shot him dead outside The Yacht pub.
He then drove the getaway car to a nearby estate and set it alight, but fled before making sure that the car exploded. It didn't, and traces of Doyle's DNA were recovered. He boarded a flight to Alicante days later and had lived in Marbella since.
Two days before the Noel Roche murder, Doyle was said to have got into the back seat of a car at a housing estate in Firhouse for a meeting with two fellow Thompson gang members.
Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne believed they were there to discuss an impending drugs delivery, but Doyle produced a 9mm pistol and shot both men in the back of the head.
They died before they realised that anything was amiss. The pair were murdered as a result of internal gang tensions over the control of drugs money. Doyle was also the prime suspect in the July 2002 murder of Timothy Rattigan in Crumlin. Eighteen-year-old Rattigan was a member of the rival Crumlin gang and was shot outside his home.
Doyle was well known to gardai and had amassed 42 convictions for a wide variety of offences including drug dealing, serious assault, theft and road traffic offences. He was regarded as a psychopath who took pleasure in inflicting violence. He beat a man to within inches of his life in a pub in Capel Street four years ago.
FREDDIE Thompson's role in last week's events has yet to be completely ascertained.
It was initially reported that Thompson and another criminal, Gary Hutch, were with Doyle in the jeep and managed to run away uninjured.
Hutch, who is a nephew of 'The Monk' Gerry Hutch, drove the vehicle and fled the scene while his friend was murdered. He later presented himself to Spanish police.
Freddie Thompson was definitely not in the jeep, although he was in Estepona and visited the scene less than an hour after the murder. He has since gone to ground, but has been in touch with members of his gang in Dublin.
Several sources have suggested to gardai that Thompson might have set up the murder because Doyle was getting too big, but this is not being treated too seriously. A senior garda source investigating the shooting of Martin Foley two weeks ago says that one of the lines of inquiry was to determine whether Paddy Doyle was in the country when the shooting happened. It is known that Doyle had returned to Ireland on several occasions over the last 28 months and was known to wear disguises including wigs. It is not thought that he was in Ireland when Foley was shot and seriously wounded although another member of the Thompson gang is the chief suspect.
Sources say there are "loads" of people ready and willing to replace Paddy Doyle as the Thompson gang's fixer on the Costa del Sol, but none of his potential successors has the same menace as the dead man. In any event, international drug gangs will be reluctant to do business with Thompson again because of his reputation for not paying his bills.
THE Costa del Sol is favoured by Irish gangsters and drug dealers because it is a mecca for international drug traffickers who use it as a base to import heroin, cocaine and cannabis from Morocco, Colombia and Afghanistan.
The Costa is like a European headquarters for distribution, with literally dozens of drug cartels doing business with each other there.
Tens of millions of euro worth of transactions are carried out each week.
The Spanish police and government have often been accused of taking a relaxed approach to the organised criminality in the region.
Dozens of Irish underworld figures call the 'Costa del Crime' home and Paddy Doyle is not the first to have crossed the wrong people there.
The bodies of the notorious Westies leaders Shane Coates and Steven Sugg were found in a concrete grave in Alicante in July 2006 after they fell out with a violent drugs gang. Drug dealers Sean Dunne and John McKeown are also missing presumed dead in Alicante.
One Dublin detective who has known both Doyle and Freddie Thompson since they were teenagers said: "The two lads were out of their depth in Spain dealing with a massive Turkish drugs syndicate with big links to Afghanistan.
Doyle was a hard man in Crumlin and half of the city was scared stiff of him, but he was a nobody in Spain up against the likes of the Russian mafia.
The problem was that he thought he was a big player, but he wasn't. He saw the Westies murdered in the same area because they were acting the hard men, so you'd think he would have learnt something. Freddie Thompson has gone to ground in Spain and he must fear that he is next.
That's what we think anyway. We have already told him that his life is in danger in Ireland and Spain is hardly a safe haven for him now either."
February 10, 2008
He was a hard man in Crumlin and a hitman in Dublin . . . but he was way out of his depth in Spain
Mick McCaffrey, Security Editor
EARLY last October, gardai received an intelligence report from Spanish police about a dispute that had arisen between two Irish citizens and a Turkish crime syndicate on the Costa del Sol. The Guardia Civil had learned that two men named Frederick Thompson and Patrick Doyle had been warned that they would be murdered if they did not pay outstanding bills for a number of sizeable heroin shipments.
Thompson is said to have given two fingers to the bearer of the message, while Doyle laughed and said that he would personally kill anyone who threatened him.
Last Monday, Doyle was sitting in the passenger seat of his BMW X5 jeep in Estepona when he was ambushed by a number of gunmen who fired over two dozen shots from a machine pistol.
The 27-year-old managed to get out of the jeep and tried to run away but one of the gunmen, who wore no mask, calmly walked up to him and shot him twice in the head. Doyle was shot a total of 12 times.
Paddy Doyle is the latest Irish gangster to have died in Spain under the false belief that his fearsome reputation in this country would be enough to protect him when doing business with international drug traffickers.
A clear picture is only now beginning to emerge about the reasons for Doyle's clinical and coldblooded murder.
Freddie Thompson is one of the country's biggest criminals and is the leader of a Drimnaghbased drugs gang that has been involved in a bloody feud with a rival gang from Crumlin. At least 11 people have lost their lives since 2001 as a result of the feud.
Paddy Doyle was Thompson's hitman and enforcer-in-chief and was responsible for organising shipments of heroin and cocaine from Spain.
Doyle and Thompson were introduced to a Turkish family in London and for the past three years, the Turks have been supplying the Thompson gang with massive amounts of cheap heroin which is imported from Afghanistan.
Over the last 18 months, gardai have had considerable success in intercepting drugs shipments belonging to Thompson. The gang has lost millions of euro worth of revenue as a result of the seizures. Because of their financial straits, Thompson and Doyle had been reluctant to pay the Turks in Spain. This caused serious tensions to develop.
The Turks warned the two men that there would be repercussions if the bill was not settled and they were preparing to pay when a further shipment was seized near the Dublin docklands late last year.
The two Irish criminals then decided to hold off on paying until they could generate much-needed funds. Less than two weeks ago, Doyle was given a final warning, but he ignored it and met what was an inevitable fate.
THE murder of Patrick Doyle had no Irish involvement whatsoever, but it has the potential to be hugely significant in shaping the future gangland landscape here.
Doyle was probably the most violent and feared criminal operating in the capital and his presence was enough to deter the rival Crumlin gang from attempting to carry out attacks on Thompson gang members.
Gardai say that the Crumlin gang, which is led by a man serving a lengthy jail sentence, was so afraid that Doyle would come back to Dublin and hunt individual members down that it has effectively been on ceasefire.
With Doyle's demise, detectives now fear that this gang will attempt to reassert itself. This inevitably will result in the death toll rising further. Tensions in Crumlin and Drimnagh are already high after the attempted murder of 'The Viper' Martin Foley. One small incident might be enough to kick off a series of tit-for-tat killings.
Paddy Doyle had been based in Marbella since November 2005, when he fled Ireland after allegedly carrying out three murders in just two days.
His exile was not by choice. The convicted drug dealer made an amateur error after one of the killings and was facing immediate arrest if spotted by gardai.
Detectives say that on 15 November 2005, Doyle received a call on his mobile phone informing him that a member of the rival Crumlin gang was attending a Phil Collins concert at the Point theatre.
Along with another member of the Thompson gang, he picked up a Glock pistol and followed 27year-old Noel Roche to Clontarf and shot him dead outside The Yacht pub.
He then drove the getaway car to a nearby estate and set it alight, but fled before making sure that the car exploded. It didn't, and traces of Doyle's DNA were recovered. He boarded a flight to Alicante days later and had lived in Marbella since.
Two days before the Noel Roche murder, Doyle was said to have got into the back seat of a car at a housing estate in Firhouse for a meeting with two fellow Thompson gang members.
Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne believed they were there to discuss an impending drugs delivery, but Doyle produced a 9mm pistol and shot both men in the back of the head.
They died before they realised that anything was amiss. The pair were murdered as a result of internal gang tensions over the control of drugs money. Doyle was also the prime suspect in the July 2002 murder of Timothy Rattigan in Crumlin. Eighteen-year-old Rattigan was a member of the rival Crumlin gang and was shot outside his home.
Doyle was well known to gardai and had amassed 42 convictions for a wide variety of offences including drug dealing, serious assault, theft and road traffic offences. He was regarded as a psychopath who took pleasure in inflicting violence. He beat a man to within inches of his life in a pub in Capel Street four years ago.
FREDDIE Thompson's role in last week's events has yet to be completely ascertained.
It was initially reported that Thompson and another criminal, Gary Hutch, were with Doyle in the jeep and managed to run away uninjured.
Hutch, who is a nephew of 'The Monk' Gerry Hutch, drove the vehicle and fled the scene while his friend was murdered. He later presented himself to Spanish police.
Freddie Thompson was definitely not in the jeep, although he was in Estepona and visited the scene less than an hour after the murder. He has since gone to ground, but has been in touch with members of his gang in Dublin.
Several sources have suggested to gardai that Thompson might have set up the murder because Doyle was getting too big, but this is not being treated too seriously. A senior garda source investigating the shooting of Martin Foley two weeks ago says that one of the lines of inquiry was to determine whether Paddy Doyle was in the country when the shooting happened. It is known that Doyle had returned to Ireland on several occasions over the last 28 months and was known to wear disguises including wigs. It is not thought that he was in Ireland when Foley was shot and seriously wounded although another member of the Thompson gang is the chief suspect.
Sources say there are "loads" of people ready and willing to replace Paddy Doyle as the Thompson gang's fixer on the Costa del Sol, but none of his potential successors has the same menace as the dead man. In any event, international drug gangs will be reluctant to do business with Thompson again because of his reputation for not paying his bills.
THE Costa del Sol is favoured by Irish gangsters and drug dealers because it is a mecca for international drug traffickers who use it as a base to import heroin, cocaine and cannabis from Morocco, Colombia and Afghanistan.
The Costa is like a European headquarters for distribution, with literally dozens of drug cartels doing business with each other there.
Tens of millions of euro worth of transactions are carried out each week.
The Spanish police and government have often been accused of taking a relaxed approach to the organised criminality in the region.
Dozens of Irish underworld figures call the 'Costa del Crime' home and Paddy Doyle is not the first to have crossed the wrong people there.
The bodies of the notorious Westies leaders Shane Coates and Steven Sugg were found in a concrete grave in Alicante in July 2006 after they fell out with a violent drugs gang. Drug dealers Sean Dunne and John McKeown are also missing presumed dead in Alicante.
One Dublin detective who has known both Doyle and Freddie Thompson since they were teenagers said: "The two lads were out of their depth in Spain dealing with a massive Turkish drugs syndicate with big links to Afghanistan.
Doyle was a hard man in Crumlin and half of the city was scared stiff of him, but he was a nobody in Spain up against the likes of the Russian mafia.
The problem was that he thought he was a big player, but he wasn't. He saw the Westies murdered in the same area because they were acting the hard men, so you'd think he would have learnt something. Freddie Thompson has gone to ground in Spain and he must fear that he is next.
That's what we think anyway. We have already told him that his life is in danger in Ireland and Spain is hardly a safe haven for him now either."
February 10, 2008
Russians kill Dublin drugs lord in Spain
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
The Observer, Sunday 10 February 2008
Russian mafia hitmen shot dead Dublin gangland member Paddy Doyle on the Costa del Sol, senior gardai claimed this weekend
Doyle, the survivor of a vicious criminal turf war in south Dublin which has claimed at least 10 lives, was gunned down in Estepona last Monday. Veteran detectives with the Garda Siochana's 'Operation Anvil', the drive against Dublin's crime gangs, said the 27-year-old had beaten up a close relative of a Russian mafia leader based on the southern Spanish coastline.
'From what our Spanish colleagues have told us, this was a professional Russian hit. There were 13 shots and we don't think they wasted a bullet. It has a military-trained assassin written all over it, possibly ex-special forces,' a senior detective told The Observer. 'The intelligence coming back from the Costa del Sol is that Paddy Doyle crossed the Russian mafia, which is something you do there at your peril.'
The officer said shortly after Christmas Doyle got involved in a brawl with a young Russian man whom he severely beat up. Unknown to Doyle, the man was related to a senior Russian mafia figure. True to form, on a warm afternoon in one of Spain's most popular destinations for tourists and holiday-home owners, vengeance was exacted in a ruthless fashion.
Doyle, a career criminal, had been the chief suspect in two murders carried out in his native city in 2002 and 2005. He had eluded the gardai and went on the run via Liverpool, Manchester and eventually the favoured destination for many of Ireland's crime lords, Spain's Costa del Sol. From there he helped run a drugs empire smuggling vast amounts of cocaine from Spain into Ireland.
But around 2pm last Monday, Doyle finally met his match. He was travelling in the front passenger seat of a BMW 4X4 driven by one Gary Hutch. As Hutch drove the car towards La Cancelada outside Estepona they were ambushed. According to eyewitnesses two men from a green car opened fire, smashing the windscreen and hitting the passenger door. Hutch crashed the car and he and Doyle ran for cover.
What happened next demonstrated a clinical, military-style ruthlessness on behalf of the attackers. One of the gunmen singled out Doyle and shot him at least twice in the head. At least 13 bullets were fired at Doyle who died at the scene. A terrified Hutch, meanwhile, crouched in terror and waited until the gunmen had left before presenting himself at a local police station.
Reports back in Ireland tried to link Doyle's murder to the feud between two criminal gangs that have been at war in the Crumlin-Drimnagh districts of south Dublin since 2001. However, a senior Garda officer and veteran of the force's 'Operation Anvil' revealed the real identity of Doyle's assassins - the Russian mafia.
Less than 24 hours after Doyle's murder, cocaine valued at about €9.2million was seized by Spanish police in Estepona close to the shooting. Doyle was on his way to meet a British criminal when his car was ambushed and this triggered speculation that his death was linked to the drugs haul, in which an Irishman was one of eight arrested.
But back in Dublin the officer with intimate knowledge of Doyle and his gang insisted there was a more prosaic reason for his demise.
'Doyle was typical of the third generation of gangland "soldier" from Dublin. He was aggressive, showy and started fights at a whim. He and his ilk are unlike the older Irish criminal types on the Costa who live a very quiet life and just get on with their business. Our intelligence suggests Doyle simply crossed the people you don't cross on the Costa, the Russians.'
Monday, 28 January 2008
'Viper' hit sparks fears of gang feud
'Viper' hit sparks fears of gang feud
Doctors say Foley's fitness saved his life after an eight-bullet attack
By Tom Brady Security Editor
Monday January 28 2008
Gardai fear the weekend attempt to murder notorious Dublin crime figure Martin Foley will re-ignite a deadly gang feud in the capital.
Last night, the criminal known as The Viper was on the road to recovery despite being shot eight times.
Doctors believe his fitness saved his life.
Foley was still in a critical condition in St James' Hospital, but medical staff said his condition had improved dramatically since Saturday and his life was no longer at risk.
At the centre of the garda investigation is a young criminal who is a member of a well-known family, originally from the south inner city.
Foley named the man as his would-be killer as he was being ferried to hospital on Saturday afternoon after the shooting outside the Carlisle health and fitness club at Lower Kimmage Road.
Gardai yesterday recovered what they believe to be the weapon used in the attack, as well as other items, including clothing. The gunman pumped eight shots -- not six as was reported in several Sunday papers -- from a high-powered pistol into Foley as he attempted to make his escape in his Audi car.
The 57-year-old victim was hit in the shoulder, arm, wrist, hand, twice in his lower back, and his thigh, while one shot grazed his skull as he frantically tried to get away from his attacker. Two other shots missed the target. The car spun out of control as the badly wounded Foley attempted to flee and ended up in a nearby garden.
The gunman and an accomplice made their getaway in a white Ford van, which was found abandoned at Wainsfort Road in Terenure. Gardai found the weapon in the van.
The attackers attempted to set fire to the van but did not succeed in their panic to get away and senior garda officers believe that a detailed forensic examination will provide vital clues to the identity of the gang.
Although Foley named the gunman, detectives are also following up several other lines of inquiry on the identity of his attackers.
They are investigating one theory that the "hit" was ordered by the leader of one of the gangs involved in the brutal Crumlin-Drimnagh feud that has already claimed eight lives.
This could result in retaliation by associates in the opposing faction. The two groups fell out over the garda seizure of a drugs haul in a hotel in Pearse Street in the centre of the city.
underworld
But they are also examining the possibility that the shooting was linked to Foley's activity as a debt collector on the south and west side of the city.
A number of leading crime figures are known to have sold on their debts to other gangland players and this has turned the interaction between the gangs into a highly complicated web.
Detectives are also looking at a possible link between Saturday's shooting and the murder of Walkinstown car dealer and underworld "fixer", Brian Downes, who was shot dead outside his garage late last year.
And they are also anxious to establish if there could be a connection with a recent shooting incident in Clondalkin in which nobody was hurt.
Meanwhile, it was learned last night that the garda authorities are planning to beef up the organised crime unit, which has been highly successful since it was established in 2006.
It is intended the unit should be placed on a permanent basis -- at present it is comprised of a number of detectives seconded from other squads.
- Tom Brady Security Editor
Doctors say Foley's fitness saved his life after an eight-bullet attack
By Tom Brady Security Editor
Monday January 28 2008
Gardai fear the weekend attempt to murder notorious Dublin crime figure Martin Foley will re-ignite a deadly gang feud in the capital.
Last night, the criminal known as The Viper was on the road to recovery despite being shot eight times.
Doctors believe his fitness saved his life.
Foley was still in a critical condition in St James' Hospital, but medical staff said his condition had improved dramatically since Saturday and his life was no longer at risk.
At the centre of the garda investigation is a young criminal who is a member of a well-known family, originally from the south inner city.
Foley named the man as his would-be killer as he was being ferried to hospital on Saturday afternoon after the shooting outside the Carlisle health and fitness club at Lower Kimmage Road.
Gardai yesterday recovered what they believe to be the weapon used in the attack, as well as other items, including clothing. The gunman pumped eight shots -- not six as was reported in several Sunday papers -- from a high-powered pistol into Foley as he attempted to make his escape in his Audi car.
The 57-year-old victim was hit in the shoulder, arm, wrist, hand, twice in his lower back, and his thigh, while one shot grazed his skull as he frantically tried to get away from his attacker. Two other shots missed the target. The car spun out of control as the badly wounded Foley attempted to flee and ended up in a nearby garden.
The gunman and an accomplice made their getaway in a white Ford van, which was found abandoned at Wainsfort Road in Terenure. Gardai found the weapon in the van.
The attackers attempted to set fire to the van but did not succeed in their panic to get away and senior garda officers believe that a detailed forensic examination will provide vital clues to the identity of the gang.
Although Foley named the gunman, detectives are also following up several other lines of inquiry on the identity of his attackers.
They are investigating one theory that the "hit" was ordered by the leader of one of the gangs involved in the brutal Crumlin-Drimnagh feud that has already claimed eight lives.
This could result in retaliation by associates in the opposing faction. The two groups fell out over the garda seizure of a drugs haul in a hotel in Pearse Street in the centre of the city.
underworld
But they are also examining the possibility that the shooting was linked to Foley's activity as a debt collector on the south and west side of the city.
A number of leading crime figures are known to have sold on their debts to other gangland players and this has turned the interaction between the gangs into a highly complicated web.
Detectives are also looking at a possible link between Saturday's shooting and the murder of Walkinstown car dealer and underworld "fixer", Brian Downes, who was shot dead outside his garage late last year.
And they are also anxious to establish if there could be a connection with a recent shooting incident in Clondalkin in which nobody was hurt.
Meanwhile, it was learned last night that the garda authorities are planning to beef up the organised crime unit, which has been highly successful since it was established in 2006.
It is intended the unit should be placed on a permanent basis -- at present it is comprised of a number of detectives seconded from other squads.
- Tom Brady Security Editor
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Crime boss 'Viper' fights for life after gun attack
Crime boss 'Viper' fights for life after gun attack
Notorious gangland figure Martin Foley shot five times in city ambush
By Don Lavery, Niamh Horan and Joanna Kiernan
Sunday January 27 2008
One of the country's most notorious criminals, Martin Foley, known as 'The Viper', was shot and seriously wounded outside a Dublin gymnasium yesterday afternoon.
Foley, 55, who has survived several assassination attempts in the past , was sitting in his car when between five and six shots were fired by at least one gunman.
He tried to drive away from his attackers and he is believed to have been hit several times in the chest, shoulder and lower body.
His car crashed a short distance away from the scene of the shooting.
It is at least the fourth known attempt on his life. He had been hit by 11 bullets before yesterday's shooting.
The shooting, which happened around 3pm near Ben Dunne's Carisle Gym in Kimmage, was the latest murder attempt on Foley who was an associate of Martin Cahill, 'The General'.
At least some of the attempts were carried out by the the Provisional IRA while others were by other criminal gangs.
The badly injured man was taken to St James' Hospital for treatment where he is in a "critical" condition.
Eyewitnesses outside the Carlisle Health and Fitness club in Kimmage, south Dublin gave their reaction to the shooting, shortly after the incident took place.
Brian Kelly, a local said: "At five past three I heard five shots. It sounded like a hand gun. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang -- really quick. Then, five minutes later the sirens were blaring and they took him away. I'm a regular in the gym and I'd always see him there. They must have known his routine, because he always goes on a Saturday."
Another eyewitness, who was on his way into the gym said he saw Foley being treated in the ambulance and believed he was conscious while receiving the treatment.
"I saw him in the back of the ambulance. The door was opened and he looked like he was talking. He didn't look like he was in pain. He was on a stretcher at the time. It obviously seems like he had a close call. He seemed relaxed and it didn't look like they were in any hurry to take him off."
Singer Dickie Rock who lives nearby gave his reaction to the incident. He said he felt sorry for the well-known criminal.
He said: "I'm came out for a walk to see what happened. It can happen anywhere.
"It doesn't matter where you live these days. I feel sorry for him, no human being deserved that."
The scene was cordoned off and there was a heavy police presence. As the garda forensics began their technical examinations, about 50 people were standing around.
The road was blocked off about 100 yards from Kimmage crossroads.
Gardai immediately sealed off the scene of the latest shooting as they awaited the the arrival of technical experts at the scene while a widespread search for the gunmen was launched.
Foley last survived an assassination attempt on his life at the swimming pool at Terenure College in 2000 when he was shot several times in the legs after being approached by two men on a motorbike when he was leaving the pool.
Mr Foley, who has served jail terms for robbery and other offences, was a close associate of Martin 'The General' Cahill.
In April that year the Provisional IRA attempted to shoot Mr Foley, but the attempt was intercepted by gardai.
Two other attempts to assassinate him were made in the 1990s.
Known as the man they couldn't kill, Foley admitted in a rare interview five years ago that he had been deeply affected by his encounters with his would-be killers.
"When you are are shot on three different occasions and you have 11 holes in your body, psychologically the thing is never going to leave you," he said.
"And you would react to certain situations where anything bad might happen."
However despite the attempts on Foley's life, who is in his fifties, he prided himself on a strenuous daily fitness regime.
Foley made legal history, when he was awarded €193,000 in a lawsuit against criminal-turned-supergrass Charlie Bowden.
Bowden admitted to the Special Criminal Court that he had loaded the gun which was used to fire on Foley outside his home in Cashel Avenue in 1995.
Foley later recalled the gun attack involving Bowden, saying he saw two two masked men one with a submachinegun. It had only been seven weeks since he was shot previously.
Foley said: "I had read a lot of books about survival. Well, about techniques to avoid being assassinated. I had the door unlocked in the car, I kept it open.
"It would be a bad mistake for anybody to stay in the car -- because if the car is put out of action, you're still stuck in the car.
"I jumped over a nearby back wall, into a house and up the stairs. The back door had been open.
"I could hear crackling. I later learned that one of the guns had jammed. As I was going up the stairs, I was shot in the back. I had the entry of a .45 bullet in the back and the exit in the stomach, through the lung and so on."
But Foley kept going in a remarkable escape, saying: "You're inclined to run a little bit fast when somebody is firing at you. I jumped feet first through a window."
Foley fell onto a flat first-floor roof. "I rolled down and jumped off. He was still firing out the back window."
He said of the gunman: "I knew I was going to survive. Sure he was a f**king eejit anyway. It didn't make a difference. He was after firing 50 f**king rounds and he still couldn't get me. Sorry -- it was 43 rounds, to be precise."
Foley became known in the 1980s as a spokesman for a group of Dublin criminals who clashed with the Concerned Parents anti-drug movement. They dubbed themselves the Concerned Criminals Action Committee.
Foley was kidnapped by the IRA in 1984 but was freed after a shootout between the IRA gang and gardai in the Phoenix Park.
At one time he survived two murder attempts in the space of four months.
He was shot in December 1995 by a gunman who approached him near Fatima Mansions, Rialto, and in the second attack in Crumlin he was ambushed in his car and hit in the back.
- Don Lavery, Niamh Horan and Joanna Kiernan
Notorious gangland figure Martin Foley shot five times in city ambush
By Don Lavery, Niamh Horan and Joanna Kiernan
Sunday January 27 2008
One of the country's most notorious criminals, Martin Foley, known as 'The Viper', was shot and seriously wounded outside a Dublin gymnasium yesterday afternoon.
Foley, 55, who has survived several assassination attempts in the past , was sitting in his car when between five and six shots were fired by at least one gunman.
He tried to drive away from his attackers and he is believed to have been hit several times in the chest, shoulder and lower body.
His car crashed a short distance away from the scene of the shooting.
It is at least the fourth known attempt on his life. He had been hit by 11 bullets before yesterday's shooting.
The shooting, which happened around 3pm near Ben Dunne's Carisle Gym in Kimmage, was the latest murder attempt on Foley who was an associate of Martin Cahill, 'The General'.
At least some of the attempts were carried out by the the Provisional IRA while others were by other criminal gangs.
The badly injured man was taken to St James' Hospital for treatment where he is in a "critical" condition.
Eyewitnesses outside the Carlisle Health and Fitness club in Kimmage, south Dublin gave their reaction to the shooting, shortly after the incident took place.
Brian Kelly, a local said: "At five past three I heard five shots. It sounded like a hand gun. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang -- really quick. Then, five minutes later the sirens were blaring and they took him away. I'm a regular in the gym and I'd always see him there. They must have known his routine, because he always goes on a Saturday."
Another eyewitness, who was on his way into the gym said he saw Foley being treated in the ambulance and believed he was conscious while receiving the treatment.
"I saw him in the back of the ambulance. The door was opened and he looked like he was talking. He didn't look like he was in pain. He was on a stretcher at the time. It obviously seems like he had a close call. He seemed relaxed and it didn't look like they were in any hurry to take him off."
Singer Dickie Rock who lives nearby gave his reaction to the incident. He said he felt sorry for the well-known criminal.
He said: "I'm came out for a walk to see what happened. It can happen anywhere.
"It doesn't matter where you live these days. I feel sorry for him, no human being deserved that."
The scene was cordoned off and there was a heavy police presence. As the garda forensics began their technical examinations, about 50 people were standing around.
The road was blocked off about 100 yards from Kimmage crossroads.
Gardai immediately sealed off the scene of the latest shooting as they awaited the the arrival of technical experts at the scene while a widespread search for the gunmen was launched.
Foley last survived an assassination attempt on his life at the swimming pool at Terenure College in 2000 when he was shot several times in the legs after being approached by two men on a motorbike when he was leaving the pool.
Mr Foley, who has served jail terms for robbery and other offences, was a close associate of Martin 'The General' Cahill.
In April that year the Provisional IRA attempted to shoot Mr Foley, but the attempt was intercepted by gardai.
Two other attempts to assassinate him were made in the 1990s.
Known as the man they couldn't kill, Foley admitted in a rare interview five years ago that he had been deeply affected by his encounters with his would-be killers.
"When you are are shot on three different occasions and you have 11 holes in your body, psychologically the thing is never going to leave you," he said.
"And you would react to certain situations where anything bad might happen."
However despite the attempts on Foley's life, who is in his fifties, he prided himself on a strenuous daily fitness regime.
Foley made legal history, when he was awarded €193,000 in a lawsuit against criminal-turned-supergrass Charlie Bowden.
Bowden admitted to the Special Criminal Court that he had loaded the gun which was used to fire on Foley outside his home in Cashel Avenue in 1995.
Foley later recalled the gun attack involving Bowden, saying he saw two two masked men one with a submachinegun. It had only been seven weeks since he was shot previously.
Foley said: "I had read a lot of books about survival. Well, about techniques to avoid being assassinated. I had the door unlocked in the car, I kept it open.
"It would be a bad mistake for anybody to stay in the car -- because if the car is put out of action, you're still stuck in the car.
"I jumped over a nearby back wall, into a house and up the stairs. The back door had been open.
"I could hear crackling. I later learned that one of the guns had jammed. As I was going up the stairs, I was shot in the back. I had the entry of a .45 bullet in the back and the exit in the stomach, through the lung and so on."
But Foley kept going in a remarkable escape, saying: "You're inclined to run a little bit fast when somebody is firing at you. I jumped feet first through a window."
Foley fell onto a flat first-floor roof. "I rolled down and jumped off. He was still firing out the back window."
He said of the gunman: "I knew I was going to survive. Sure he was a f**king eejit anyway. It didn't make a difference. He was after firing 50 f**king rounds and he still couldn't get me. Sorry -- it was 43 rounds, to be precise."
Foley became known in the 1980s as a spokesman for a group of Dublin criminals who clashed with the Concerned Parents anti-drug movement. They dubbed themselves the Concerned Criminals Action Committee.
Foley was kidnapped by the IRA in 1984 but was freed after a shootout between the IRA gang and gardai in the Phoenix Park.
At one time he survived two murder attempts in the space of four months.
He was shot in December 1995 by a gunman who approached him near Fatima Mansions, Rialto, and in the second attack in Crumlin he was ambushed in his car and hit in the back.
- Don Lavery, Niamh Horan and Joanna Kiernan
'The Viper' shot at nine times in gangland attack
Sunday Tribune
Mick McCaffrey, Security Editor
ONE of the country's most notorious criminals, 'The Viper' Martin Foley, is in a critical condition in hospital after surviving a gangland assassination attempt.
Gardai say it is a "miracle" that the 55-yearold is alive after a gunman fired nine shots from a machine pistol at close range.
Foley was struck at least twice in the lower chest and a bullet grazed his head, but he was conscious leaving the scene and even told gardai the name of the man who shot him. The suspect is a 23-year-old man and comes from Clanbrassil Street in Dublin's south-inner city. He is a member of the drugs gang controlled by 27-year-old 'Fat' Freddie Thompson. Gardai fear that Foley's friends may try to seek revenge.
Dozens of armed gardai have been deployed to the streets of Crumlin and Drimnagh to prevent what could turn into a gangland war. Gardai had no intelligence that Foley was in any danger. He was shot as he left a gym on the Kimmage Cross Road at around 3pm yesterday afternoon.
The gunman escaped in a car that was later found burnt-out a short distance away.
January 27, 2008
Mick McCaffrey, Security Editor
ONE of the country's most notorious criminals, 'The Viper' Martin Foley, is in a critical condition in hospital after surviving a gangland assassination attempt.
Gardai say it is a "miracle" that the 55-yearold is alive after a gunman fired nine shots from a machine pistol at close range.
Foley was struck at least twice in the lower chest and a bullet grazed his head, but he was conscious leaving the scene and even told gardai the name of the man who shot him. The suspect is a 23-year-old man and comes from Clanbrassil Street in Dublin's south-inner city. He is a member of the drugs gang controlled by 27-year-old 'Fat' Freddie Thompson. Gardai fear that Foley's friends may try to seek revenge.
Dozens of armed gardai have been deployed to the streets of Crumlin and Drimnagh to prevent what could turn into a gangland war. Gardai had no intelligence that Foley was in any danger. He was shot as he left a gym on the Kimmage Cross Road at around 3pm yesterday afternoon.
The gunman escaped in a car that was later found burnt-out a short distance away.
January 27, 2008
Thursday, 17 January 2008
€6.5m worth of misery
€6.5m worth of misery
Stacking up the haul . . . some of the 32 kilos of heroin with an estimated street value of €6.5m seized by gardai
By TOM BRADY
Thursday January 17 2008
A major heroin seizure in west Dublin has confirmed garda fears of a worrying increase in the supply of the killer drug across Europe this year.
Detectives seized 32 kilos of heroin, worth €6.5m on the streets, after a lengthy surveillance operation involving several garda units.
Last night a 35-year-old man, suspected by gardai of being a major drugs trafficker on the south and west side of the city, was in custody at Clondalkin garda station.
A female associate of the prime suspect, also aged 35, was being questioned by gardai about the haul.
Follow-up searches resulted in the freezing of over €60,000, which had been lodged in bank accounts by the suspect, and the seizure of three vehicles.
The heroin find is one of the biggest in the last couple of years.
The amount of heroin smuggled into the country in the past three years has increased almost fivefold from 26 kilos to 125.
Drug experts are bracing themselves for a big increase in heroin on the streets in 2008 and a rise in purity levels. Agencies are also concerned at the intelligence patterns showing that heroin is now available across the country and has spread into all social categories.
Control of the heroin trade is largely in the hands of crime gangs based in west and south Dublin where traditionally there has been a large number of addicts in suburbs ranging from Tallaght across to Clondalkin, Ronanstown, Ballyfermot, Blanchardstown and Finglas.
The latest seizure is believed by senior officers to have been destined for Tallaght, Clondalkin, Ronanstown and Ballyfermot.
It was recovered after detectives stopped a van at Coolmore Park in Palmerstown around teatime on Tuesday following what was described as a targeted intelligence-led operation.
Support
The lengthy investigation was spearheaded by the Garda national drugs unit and local units from Ballyfermot and Clondalkin and also involved the Garda air support unit, dog unit, Criminal Assets Bureau and technical bureau.
Some of the heroin was found inside the van and gardai chased to the driver who fled the scene into a nearby park.
He was spotted dropping two bags of heroin, which were recovered, as other garda units joined the search.
Gardai said later they had recovered all of the heroin, a total of 32 one-kilo slabs. Also seized were the van, a BMW X5 four by four, owned by the male suspect, and a car.
Detectives found documentation relating to the bank accounts during a search of a house in Clondalkin and, with the assistance of the Criminal Assets Bureau, the money was frozen yesterday.
One of the officers heading the investigation, Det Supt Paddy Byrne said: "This is a very significant seizure. We see it not only as a victory for the gardai, but also for the community, as it removes a lot of heroin from the streets."
The male suspect had been under investigation by gardai in the past in connection with a number of major drug seizures and was regarded as a key player in the trafficking scene.
He was suspected to have been linked to British drug smuggling gangs and to have also been associated in the past with the gang led by jailed gangland boss John Gilligan.
- TOM BRADY
Stacking up the haul . . . some of the 32 kilos of heroin with an estimated street value of €6.5m seized by gardai
By TOM BRADY
Thursday January 17 2008
A major heroin seizure in west Dublin has confirmed garda fears of a worrying increase in the supply of the killer drug across Europe this year.
Detectives seized 32 kilos of heroin, worth €6.5m on the streets, after a lengthy surveillance operation involving several garda units.
Last night a 35-year-old man, suspected by gardai of being a major drugs trafficker on the south and west side of the city, was in custody at Clondalkin garda station.
A female associate of the prime suspect, also aged 35, was being questioned by gardai about the haul.
Follow-up searches resulted in the freezing of over €60,000, which had been lodged in bank accounts by the suspect, and the seizure of three vehicles.
The heroin find is one of the biggest in the last couple of years.
The amount of heroin smuggled into the country in the past three years has increased almost fivefold from 26 kilos to 125.
Drug experts are bracing themselves for a big increase in heroin on the streets in 2008 and a rise in purity levels. Agencies are also concerned at the intelligence patterns showing that heroin is now available across the country and has spread into all social categories.
Control of the heroin trade is largely in the hands of crime gangs based in west and south Dublin where traditionally there has been a large number of addicts in suburbs ranging from Tallaght across to Clondalkin, Ronanstown, Ballyfermot, Blanchardstown and Finglas.
The latest seizure is believed by senior officers to have been destined for Tallaght, Clondalkin, Ronanstown and Ballyfermot.
It was recovered after detectives stopped a van at Coolmore Park in Palmerstown around teatime on Tuesday following what was described as a targeted intelligence-led operation.
Support
The lengthy investigation was spearheaded by the Garda national drugs unit and local units from Ballyfermot and Clondalkin and also involved the Garda air support unit, dog unit, Criminal Assets Bureau and technical bureau.
Some of the heroin was found inside the van and gardai chased to the driver who fled the scene into a nearby park.
He was spotted dropping two bags of heroin, which were recovered, as other garda units joined the search.
Gardai said later they had recovered all of the heroin, a total of 32 one-kilo slabs. Also seized were the van, a BMW X5 four by four, owned by the male suspect, and a car.
Detectives found documentation relating to the bank accounts during a search of a house in Clondalkin and, with the assistance of the Criminal Assets Bureau, the money was frozen yesterday.
One of the officers heading the investigation, Det Supt Paddy Byrne said: "This is a very significant seizure. We see it not only as a victory for the gardai, but also for the community, as it removes a lot of heroin from the streets."
The male suspect had been under investigation by gardai in the past in connection with a number of major drug seizures and was regarded as a key player in the trafficking scene.
He was suspected to have been linked to British drug smuggling gangs and to have also been associated in the past with the gang led by jailed gangland boss John Gilligan.
- TOM BRADY
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