Drug gangs rampant in top Dublin youth jail

Juveniles smuggle eggs packed with heroin past guards

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor

The Observer, Sunday 12 September 2004 01.32 BST

Ireland's largest young offenders' centre is awash with drugs, plagued by gang culture and breaking numerous UN and EU conventions over the jailing of juveniles alongside adults, according to relatives of prison officers who work at St Patrick's Institution in Dublin.

They claim that chronic understaffing and low morale have led to:

• A drug culture supported by ingenious methods of delivery, including eggs containing heroin and hashish.

• No patrols of exterior walls while drug dealers' runners on the outside openly hurl the narcotics into the exercise yard.

• Workshops being closed.

• Juveniles held alongside adults in breach of EU and UN treaties on children's rights.

• Rival gangs clashing on the wings and in the exercise yard.

The Observer met the main spokeswoman for the officers' relatives, the wife of a prison officer with nearly 25 years of service in youth detention.

She said the officers were too frightened to speak themselves as they feared they could lose their jobs, face fines or even imprisonment under the Department of Justice's news rules barring state servants such as Garda officers from speaking to the media.

On security, she said that drug runners are openly throwing drugs over the exterior wall beside the Royal Canal: 'There are no officers with dogs patrolling around the walls. The drug dealers' runners aren't even worried about the CCTV cameras looking down on the raised ground where they throw the drugs over. They wear baseball caps and scarves over their faces when they do it, some of them don't even bother covering their faces up, they are so brazen.'

The officers have noticed a new method to deliver drugs to the young offenders on the other side of the wall - eggs.

'The dealers cut an egg at the top, place heroin or hash in tin foil or plastic and drop it into the egg. Then they seal it up and tie it with twine to a stone. They are then thrown on to the net. The egg cracks and the wrap falls out with the yolk. It either falls onto the ground or the young offenders distract prison officers and others form a pyramid until one of them can get to the net and take the drugs off it.'

The relatives of the prison officers said that during exercise time there are only five staff to watch 70 to 80 young inmates. The prisoners use mobile phones smuggled into St Patrick's to text their dealers on the outside.

The new €25,000 net was installed to replace nets that were unable to stop tennis and golf balls containing drug wraps falling onto the yard.

Founded in 1858 and situated beside Mountjoy Jail, St Patrick's currently holds 170 inmates aged 16 to 21 who are serving a range of sentences up to life.

Through their relatives, the officers also claimed that a €12 million school built beside the north Dublin complex, which the inmates were to attend, has been closed for 18 months because of staff shortages.

'The school has a big gym and gym hall, changing rooms and state-of-the-art facilities and it is all lying empty. There is even a gym teacher who has been on the payroll for a year and a half without teaching any of the inmates.

'The metal and woodwork workshops have been closed because there are not enough officers to secure the units. There is some education but not much; most of the young offenders' spare time is taken up with passive activities such as watching videos in the library or TV in their cells,' the officers' spokeswoman said.

Their claim that housing juvenile offenders (those aged 16 to 18) alongside 19 to 21-year-olds breaches EU and UN conventions on children's rights was backed up yesterday by one of Ireland's leading human rights experts.

Ivana Bacik, a law lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin, said that holding juveniles and adults together breached Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Children's Rights.

An Irish Prison Service spokesman confirmed that juveniles were incarcerated at St Patrick's with adults but that under the 1999 Children Act there were plans to separate the two age groups. He also said that there were at least two incidents where drugs came over the exterior wall inside eggs and that a workshop was closed due to financial reasons.

He denied the officers' claims that drugs were widely available and that mobile phones had been smuggled into St Patrick's. He also denied lack of staff has resulted in security breaches at St Patrick's.

'Over 400 prisoners have used our drug-free wing of St Patrick's, which has been highly successful. Indeed there have been comments from drug users sent to St Patrick's describing their time there as like undergoing cold turkey. There are also random searches of prisoners following visits,' he said.

He said the prison service did not patrol the exterior walls, as this was the remit of the Garda Siochana.

The coast is clear for drug smugglers

Sunday Tribune

John Burke
Ireland's coastline is vulnerable. With the second largest maritime area in the EU, the resources available for patrolling these waters by the authorities is relatively minuscule.

Experts say that the equivalent on land would be two garda cars for the entire country.

This lack of capacity in the naval service ? and the lack of will at government level to address the situation ? has not gone unnoticed. Expatriate Irish criminals, and the increasing number of ethnic gangs to which they are allied, have realised that the lonely waters off the Irish coast and many secluded bays and inlets in the south and west offer a perfect transit point to bring cannabis, heroin and other drugs into the state and from there to mainland Europe.

Last week's seizure of precursor chemicals with a potential street value of .500m at a Walkinstown warehouse is just the latest sign that Ireland is increasingly seen as a soft target for the transit of illegal drugs.

Figures for seizures of illegal drugs indicate increased activity by smugglers. Last year, gardaí and customs seized over .100m worth of illicit drugs entering the state ? virtually double the amount for 2002.

While gardaí have always said it is impossible to value the illegal drugs trade accurately here, international experts estimate that national law enforcement agencies intercept about one-tenth of domestic drugs traffic.

In 2002, this calculation would have valued the illicit drugs trade here at around .500m. Last year, that value had spectacularly doubled to .1bn. Last week's seizure has seen the figure increase fivefold in the first six months of 2004.

Michael Colgan, director of the Customs National Drugs Team (CNDT), who was central to last week's success, said intelligence available to his agency ? and supported by arrest figures in relation to trafficking offences ? indicate that West African gang members are becoming strongly established in the Irish drugs trade, creating a new dynamic for law enforcement bodies.

There is also growing evidence that Chinese Triad gangs based in Ireland and the UK are rapidly becoming the leading criminal gangs directing drugs trafficking.

Gardaí reluctantly admit that they know far less about the activities of the Chinese Triads than about other European criminals.

Garda sources say it is believed that at least three Triad factions are operating in Dublin at present, and are heavily involved in running brothels, in addition to their involvement in trafficking drugs to and from the UK and China.

"Both intelligence information and statistical data show that a new phenomenon is emerging that suggests drugs gangs are becoming increasingly globalised. This presents significant new challenges for us, " Colgan said. "In terms of defending our coast against illegal drugs trafficking, we started from a position of high risk due to the size of our coastline." The precursor chemicals found by gardaí last week had the capacity to manufacture 50 million ecstacy tablets, worth half-a-billion euro on the street, and .37.5m worth of amphetamines. Garda sources said the drugs were possibly diverted here after significant success by Dutch customs in seizing large volumes of precursor chemicals.

Last week's seizure, while successful from an intervention perspective, suggests a worrying prospect for law enforcement agencies here ? the paucity of information on the movements of emerging non-national gangs combined with the influence of Irish criminals on the continent.

One senior garda at the national bureau of criminal investigation (NBCI) said it was proving increasingly difficult to build up effective intelligence against suspected non-national criminals.

"Obtaining information on non-national criminal gangs based here is a new phenomenon. We are reliant on information from other EU police bodies who can point to the movement of someone into the state, " he said.

However, there is increasing intelligence indicating the route that drugs entering the state are taking. Heroin, originating primarily in Afghanistan, is being trafficked via Turkey, and from there on to Holland or the UK for laboratory processing.

The bulk of cannabis originates in north Africa and is trafficked into Spain from where, like heroin, it reaches Ireland at the end of a long international chain.

Ecstasy, on the other hand is primarily trafficked from China and the Orient and then channelled through Ireland into the UK, where it will be processed before some of the consignment is sent back here for sale.

"What we have is a large number of expatriate Irish criminals, most of whom fled here after the excellent work done by the criminal assets bureau (CAB). Irish criminals based in the Netherlands and Spain are now heavily involved in trafficking drugs back into Ireland, and have extensive local knowledge to aid their criminal efforts, " Colgan said.

The growing incidence of drug trafficking on Irish shores is worrying, but hardly new. As long ago as 1994, it emerged in evidence given by the naval service at a major drugs trial that traffickers were 20 times more likely to enter Europe by transiting through Irish waters.

The eight-vessel naval service fleet, charged with protecting the country's 2,700-mile coastline, is ageing.

Only two new ships have been commissioned in recent years.

Surrounded by Europe's second-largest maritime area, Ireland's patrol capability has been described as the landbased equivalent of around two garda cars for the whole island.

It is unknown whether international drug barons read government white papers but, if they do, many will read with interest the white paper on defence. The 2001 white paper acknowledged, in paragraph 2.3.10, that the "single most important area of externally based crime arises from drug trafficking", but crucially stated that this is primarily a policing issue.

Naval service sources said this lack of state investment in capacity for patrolling Irish waters against illegal drugs shipments means that two to three vessels are on deployment at crucial times.

In coming weeks, the CNDT will acquire its first sea-going vessel, in response to the use of the south coast as a gateway for criminals bringing drugs into the country. The 21-metre boat has a capacity for a crew of eight.

Colgan admits it cannot compare with the vessels at the disposal of the naval service, but said that its brief does not prioritise patrols against drug shipments.

"The naval service is stretched very far and we need a boat of our own. Kinsale is notoriously unprotected and this is something we cannot leave unaddressed. In terms of a reliable and dedicated antidrugs fleet, we're starting out as an acorn and hopefully we'll become a tree, " Colgan said.
May 16, 2004

Two Irish women held in Spain over missing Westies

Sunday Tribune

EOGHAN RICE
POLICE in Spain are questioning two Irish women in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of two alleged leaders of a Dublin drugs gang.

The two women, believed to be girlfriends of the missing men, were arrested yesterday after flying to Spain to officially report the two men missing. The women are being held in a resort town south of Alicante.

Twenty-six year old Stephen Sugg and 31-year old Shane Coates ? both of whom are allegedly involved in a Dublin crime gang known as the 'Westies' ? have been missing from their villa in the south-east of Spain for two weeks.

It is believed that detectives investigating the disappearance arrested the women after becoming suspicious of their stories. The women told detectives that they were unaware that police are probing the possibility that the whole disappearance is a hoax to avoid arrest. Both men are wanted by the gardai.

The two women were arrested and taken to a local police station where they can be held for a maximum of 72 hours.

Coates and Sugg have been missing for two weeks now.

Sugg fled to Alicante following an attempt on his life early last year. Coates fled to Spain from Ireland in May of last year after being involved in a shootout with officers of the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) in Cavan.

The pair first met when they were teenagers on the Corduff estate in Dublin's northside. The pair had run up a string of convictions before leaving Ireland last year.

It had initially been presumed that the men had been kidnapped in relation to a dispute with a rival drug gang either from Spain or Ireland.

However, another possibility currently being investigated by Spanish police is that they may have faked their own disappearence to avoid capture.
February 15, 2004

Westies may have crossed one vicious hood too far

Sunday Tribune

The Westies' Spanish exiles might well have met a grisly end. Or they could be regrouping
John Burke
FOR A duo that once believed themselves to be indestructible, the 'disappearance' of Westies leader Shane Coates and his sidekick Stephen Sugg may be the latest act of desperation following the crumbling of their drug empire.

Coates and Sugg have kept some dangerous company since they fled to Spain last year, and it is entirely plausible that a disagreement over drugs or money could have led to them being kidnapped and killed as has been alleged during the week. However, a bogus kidnapping could allow them the chance to lay low for a while.

Gardaí have been eager to speak to Coates since he fled from Ireland after a shootout with officers of the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) in Cavan last May.

Coates recently got into a series of rows with Spanishbased criminals. The pair are also believed to be involved with a British drug gang with links to associates of top loyalist Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair.

Some of Adair's associates in the UDA fled to Lancashire in England after being expelled from Belfast during last year's inter-loyalist feud.

They quickly became involved in the drug scene in northern England.

A further twist in the plot emerged when it was revealed that Coates may have received ?50,000 from a Dublin drug boss to pass onto an associate in Spain who was living with the daughter of jailed drug dealer John Gilligan. The associate of the Dublin drug dealer has since died, and there have been allegations that this money may not have been passed on, leading to further potential friction in the criminal underworld.

In recent months, Garda sources believe the duo were planning to re-claim their stake in the lucrative drug market of west Dublin, but were playing a dangerous game of buying drugs without the cash to back it up.

If they were kidnapped, or are on the run, and the offence committed was failure to pay their debts, it may be the last west Dublin will see of Coates and Sugg. Spanish police have shown little interest in the case, making it even more difficult to understand what has happened to the Westies' leaders. While initial reports said the duo were dead, an associate of Sugg has since contacted his family to assure them he is fine.

When they ruled their lucrative drugs empire on the west side of Dublin's northside, the Westies operated with chilling ruthlessness, often employing needlessly gratuitous violence against their adversaries. In Alicante and Costa Blanca, it seems, Coates and Sugg were muscle without power.

If Coates and Sugg are alive, it is not for a lack of enemies at home. One theory, almost gaining consensus, is that the assassination last year of Sugg's brother Bernard was carried out by a rival drug dealer based in Donaghmede, north Dublin, who wanted a piece of the Westies' Mulhuddart and Blanchardstown drugs trade for himself. The reality may be less certain. Involvement by republican paramilitaries has not been ruled out, one well-placed Garda source told the Sunday Tribune.

"Their (republican) representatives were sent away with bruises when they came looking for contributions from the (Westies) gang. With something like this, they weren't dealing with the junkies that they normally terrorised into submission." Criminals such as John Gilligan and Dutch exile John Cunningham made more money; the General, Martin Cahill, was smarter; but the Westies were fearless, fearsome and savage, and netted an estimated ?2m a year over three years.

Thirty-one year-old Coates and Sugg, 26, were friends since their teens in the working class Corduff estate on Dublin's northside and had stolen cars together, leading to numerous convictions. In the late 1990s, they saw a vacuum in the hash and heroin trade in northside Dublin and moved in with brutal effectiveness.

For over four years they conducted their affairs with relative impunity. Despite several parallel investigations, gardaí have not, to this date, laid so much as a soft glove on them. At times, gardaí constructed seemingly watertight cases that for various reasons fell apart. The Westies were adept at threatening and attacking those who could give evidence against them long before the concept of witness intimidation reached public awareness during the Limerick feud-related Eric Leamy murder trial last November.

The secret to the Westies' success lay in the level of fear they instilled both in those who worked for them and in their enemies. Junkies and dealers who owed as little as £10 were severely beaten.

One mother of four was tortured by having her breasts burned with cigarette butts, in front of her children. The only people who could finger the gang lived in absolute fear of their wrath.

The Westies' gang encouraged brutality among its network of pushers. One junkie, Derek 'Smiley' McGuinness, from Corduff Park in Blanchardstown, owed the gang £200. He was set upon by two other pushers who, along with Sugg, smashed all his teeth, slashed him across the face and beat him with an iron bar in a public park. McGuinness gave a statement to gardaí identifying Sugg.

Forty-three-year-old rival heroin dealer Pascal Boland had seen tough men when he dealt with the notorious PJ Judge, a particularly violent drug dealer who was assasinated some years ago. He decided to push in on the Westies' turf and between October 1998 and January 1999 he reportedly imported several major heroin shipments.

A Westies' pusher who helped Boland was severely beaten and told to pass a mobile phone number to Boland. When the older criminal rang the number he was allegedly told to get off the Westies' patch or he was dead. He told the gang leader to "fuck off. . . you're nobodies". On 27 January 1999, a gunman fired 11 bullets into Boland's body.

It was the Westies' first big mistake, allowing gardaí in Blanchardstown to mount a special investigation into the gang's activities. Increased surveillance and intelligence gathering generated new leads for the gardaí.

But Coates was no fool and he proved elusive. Neither he nor senior gang members dealt directly with their merchandise and seemed almost untouchable.

But gardaí got a boost from an unexpected source when, in October 1999, Westies henchmen shot 18-year-old Blanchardstown local Paul Dempsey in his bed, disconnecting his right calf muscle from his leg with one shot.

His offence? The teen was so bold as to date Sugg's 16-yearold sister Frances without the elder brother's permission. Dempsey's brother Robert was a friend of Sugg's but he was beaten with an iron bar. Dempsey and his brother agreed to give evidence in court.

Evidence from both Dempsey and McGuinness could put the senior gang members away for a long time, and hopes were high that stronger prosecutions might emerge once the pair were off the street.

Coates spent 14 months on remand. But by October 2000 the cases against the pair were in shreds. Nobody forgot for too long that to mess with the Westies was to invite a painful death. Neither Dempsey nor McGuinness would give evidence in court.

Between the end of 2000 and late 2002 the gang brazenly stamped their authority on the west Dublin territory. Three small-time drug pushers were tortured and shot over bad debts. Gardaí believe a large number of people who fell foul of the gang were beaten and tortured with knives, vice grips and iron bars.

But by the middle of last year, things had gone almost irrevocably wrong for Coates and Sugg. They had stepped on someone's toes once too often and had clearly come up against a rival who was unimpressed by their terror tactics.

Sugg panicked after an attempt on his life 12 months ago and fled to Alicante. He was joined there by Coates three months later, after he was injured in a shootout with members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) at a safe house in Cavan. Gardaí believe the pair have some loose connections to a number of expatriate Irish criminals in Costa Blanca, most of whom are small-scale compared to the north African and eastern European gangs that run hashish, heroin and prostitution rackets via the Mediterranean country.

The final strike against the Westies' empire occurred in their absence, when Bernard Sugg was assassinated in a Blanchardstown pub last August. Another drug criminal, republican paramilitaries, or both? Either way, someone else had decided that the Westies were finished.

Whether Coates and Sugg expected an easier ride in their Spanish exile is uncertain, but last week, there was a sense of inevitability in their failure to frighten hardened Alicante-based criminals into submission, in the same manner that they brutalised west Dublin's junkies.

CRIMINALS IN EXILE

THE growing fraternity of Irish expats living in Spain and Holland includes some of the most notorious names in the Dublin drugs scene of recent years.

Among these is Dubliner Peter Mitchell, 34, based in Fuengirola, Spain. Mitchell is wanted in connection with his alleged role in what was believed to be the largest drugs gang in the capital in the 1980s.

George 'The Penguin' Mitchell, 51, allegedly continues to run his hash business from Holland. He was a suspected member of the £30m Beit art robbery gang led by Martin Cahill in the 1980s.

Tommy Savage, 53, was arrested last month in Amsterdam amid claims that he was selling drugs into Ireland and Greece. He was a prominent dealer along with Michael Weldon, 49, who also . ed the country fearing a Garda investigation in 1993.

Weldon reportedly has his own plane and pilot's licence, and frequently flies to South America. He is believed to be living in Spain, as is John 'The Coach' Traynor.

Some Irish drug dealers have met horri. c deaths facing foreign gangs. In May 2000, two young men from Tipperary and one from Ennis ? who were involved in drug manufacturing in Schevingen in Holland ? were tortured and killed.
February 15, 2004

CRIME : The year of criminals living dangerously

Saturday December 27 2003

In the past year there has been an increase in gangland killings and violence on our streets. On the plus side these acts of brutality have finally forced the Government to release more funding to the Garda. WILLIE DILLON reports

One of the most enduring images of 2003, a year in which crime once again made regular headlines news, happened in early November. Liam Keane, a 19-year-old youth, was photographed giving two fingers to the camera, his face a frightening mix of hostility and aggression.

He had walked free from the Central Criminal Court in Dublin after six prosecution witnesses failed to stand over the statements they made to gardai identifying him as the killer of fellow Limerick teenager Eric Leamy.

His menacing gesture, shocked the nation. To many, it was the clearest possible indication that the criminal justice system was breaking down; that the rule of law was neutered and redundant.

However in those few fleeting seconds outside the Four Courts, Liam Keane managed to achieve something even beyond the powers of many of the country's most powerful interest groups. At a time of financial rectitude, he got the government to spend more money. On the day Keane's picture dominated the front pages, Michael McDowell announced an extra €2 million, available immediately, to boost Garda numbers in the worst crime spots.

The move was specifically designed to increase Garda visibility, including a greater number of armed street patrols, in the Finglas area of Dublin and in Keane's own Limerick City.

The Minister was careful to soothe public alarm, while also flashing a bolt of steely determination in the direction of the criminals.

"It would be foolish," he said, "to think the entire criminal justice system had broken down because of the collapse of one trial. But it would be even more foolish for people to believe that they can give two fingers to the community they live in and not ultimately expect to face the wrath of the State."

It was apt that the gesticulating Keane - an innocent man in the eyes of the law - was from Limerick. The deadly tit-for-tat bloodletting in that city's seemingly intractable gang feud made headlines throughout 2003.

The violence in Limerick and the continuing spate of gangland killings in Dublin dominated the year's crime coverage. In both cities, among the criminal classes, life remained cheap and death often came with a clinical brutality.

It started almost as soon as the year had begun. On the night of January 23, taxi driver Niall Mulvihill was shot several times in the chest as he sat at the wheel of his cab at Dublin's Spencer Dock. Though seriously injured, the 57-year-old victim managed to drive away from the scene. He made a desperate attempt to reach the Mater Hospital. But at the junction of North Circular Road and Dorset Street, he passed out. His red Mercedes smashed into the rear of another vehicle, causing a four car pile-up. He died a short time later.

Mulvihill was well known in Dublin soccer circles as the manager of Sheriff United. He was not directly involved in violent crime. However he was known to gardai for some 20 years as a negotiator of dubious deals for major gangland figures. He was believed to be associated with some of the city's most ruthless criminals, including Martin Cahill. At the time of his death, he was facing a demand for €1 million from the Criminal Assets Bureau. To date, his assassin has not been caught.

On the same evening, a dramatic chain of events began in Limerick when brothers Eddie and Kieran Ryan were apparently abducted by masked gunmen. A shot was fired as they were bundled into the back of a car. Their father Eddie had been murdered more than two years previously by members of the rival Keane gang. An anonymous phone caller warned that the youths would be found on their father's grave.

Extensive searches by gardai and soldiers failed to find any trace of the missing pair, despite agonised pleas by their mother Mary.

Their uncle Johnny Ryan pledged "all-out war" if they were not returned safely. Six days later, with the pair effectively given up for dead, gang boss Kieran Keane was shot through the head in an execution-style killing on a lonely country road near the city.

Hours later, there was a sensational and puzzling development when the Ryan brothers walked into Portlaoise garda station, looking unexpectedly fresh and well. Hordes of journalists descended on their home in Kileely but the pair declined to talk about their week-long ordeal.

Five men were later charged with Kieran Keane's murder. Their trial, amid unprecedented security at the Central Criminal Court in Limerick in October, generated further major controversy. The court was unable to muster a jury of 12 Limerick people, out of an original panel of 529.

The case was subsequently relocated to Cloverhill in Dublin where a jury was sworn in the following week. At almost exactly the same time, the Liam Keane trial was dramatically unravelling at the Four Courts. One of the six prosecution witnesses in that trial made his position clear even as he approached the witness box. "I seen nothing," he shouted. "I'm answering no questions."

In early July, Johnny Ryan, uncle of the abducted brothers and spokesman for the Ryan family, was himself shot dead in cold blood. The 44-year-old father of six was gunned down while he worked on the patio of a house in the city. His death sparked a celebration in the Keanes' part of town; members of their faction waved bottles of champagne in the street.

In October, Michael Campbell-McNamara (25), who had close connections with the Keane family, was found dead in a field on the outskirts of Limerick. He had been shot once in the back of the head and stabbed four times; his hands and feet were bound.

Last weekend the five men accused of murdering Kieran Keane trial, all from Limerick, were found guilty and sentenced to life in jail.

They were James McCarthy (24), of Delmege Road, Moyross; Anthony McCarthy (21), of Fairgreen, Garryowen; Desmond Dundon (20), Hyde Road; David Stanners (31), Pineview Gardens, Moyross; and Christopher Costelloe (20), Moylish Avenue, Ballynanty.

In Dublin, gang killings claimed the lives of more than a dozen men. Most of them were young. Most of the deaths were in the northern and western suburbs of the city. Carefully planned execution-type murders have become almost routine in certain parts of the capital in recent years and 2003 was no different. Big drug profits, combined with the now inevitable presence of deadly firepower, make further deaths inevitable. Regrettably, the general public has become increasingly immune - and indifferent - to these ruthless gangland slayings.

At the end of January, Raymond Salinger (40), known to gardai as a drug dealer, died after being shot three times in the chest and arm as he sat on a bar stool in a pub in Dublin's New Street.

In March, the body of band manager Charles Merriman (27) was found at the entrance to a field in the St Margaret's area. He had been killed by a single shotgun blast to the back of the head. The victim socialised with people who were involved in the drugs trade.

In early April, Declan Griffin, was shot in the back of the head at a pub in Inchicore. He was carrying a gun and was wearing a bullet-proof vest at the time of his death. Later that month, drugs courier Paul Ryan (27), from Raheny, was found shot through the head with his hands tied on the roadside near the village of Coolderry, Co Offaly. He is believed to have been killed by the notorious Westies drug gang over a debt he had incurred.

In June, Ronald Draper was shot dead while working as a doorman at a pub in Eden Quay at 10pm on a Saturday night. His is believed to have been killed by the INLA as a direct result of a vicious gang fight in Dublin in 1999 in which an INLA man was hacked to death.

In July, David McGuinness (35) was shot twice in the head and back by men who called to his home at Balrothery estate in Tallaght.

In August, Bernard Sugg (23), a leading member of the Westies gang, died after being shot twice in the chest by two masked men as he sat with friends in a pub in Corduff, Blanchardstown. Less than three months later, a man associated with the same gang, Jason Tolan (24), sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the leg in Mulhuddart.

In October, father-of-two Patrick Sheridan (27) was found dead at Scribblestown Lane, a notorious dumping ground for murder victims. He had been shot twice in the head . He died apparently because local criminals believed he was helping gardai in Finglas.

Three men died as a result of a feud between rival groups in the Finglas and Ballymun areas. In April, father-of-two Michael Scott (25) was killed by a shotgun wound to the chest in the bedroom of his flat on Sillogue Road, Ballymun.

The following month, William O'Regan (32) died after being shot while watching TV with his girlfriend in their flat at New Cabra Road. And in July, Victor Murphy (30) was found dead at Dunsink Lane. He was apparently shot accidentally while in a car with a man who was involved in the feud.

Outside the gang realms, one of the most shocking crimes of the year was the apparently random attack on 35-year-old librarian Barry Duggan as he wheeled his bicycle along Grafton Street at 2am on a Sunday morning in April.

The Garda National Drugs Unit scored a number of notable hits during 2003. One of the most significant was in January when 1.6 tonnes of cannabis resin, worth an estimated €20 million, was seized at a business premises at Swords, Co Dublin.

In April some €1.35 million ecstasy tablets, with a street valued of €15 million, were found in North Dublin and at Ashbourne, Co Meath. It was the single biggest ecstasy haul ever in Ireland. The same month, a tonne of cannabis resin and 38 kilos of cocaine, also worth some €15 million, was seized in Lusk, Co Dublin.

"We don't talk in terms of the battle against drugs," says Supt. Barry O'Brien, of the NDU. "It's more a battle against organised crime. Drugs are the medium through which organised crime engages in its activities and generates income and power."

But the overall crime picture is not as bleak as it may look. Despite the high profile gangland activity, there are considerable grounds for optimism. The latest Garda statistics appear to show a significant improvement in total number of crimes being committed.

The most recently available figures reveal a downward trend across almost the entire spectrum of serious crime. Even the murder figures are falling. A total of 47 people were murdered in the 12 months up to the end of last October - compared with 56 during the same period a year earlier. That's a drop of 16pc. The worst month this year was January when seven people were murdered.

Other serious crimes also fell during the same period. Sxual offences were down 20pc. There were 22pc fewer assaults. Even robberies were down 7pc and burglaries fell marginally. Incidents involving the possession of drugs for sale or supply were down 8pc. There were 11pc fewer firearms offences. But the biggest single category of criminal offence - accounting for roughly half of all serious crimes committed - was theft. It rose by approximately 2.5pc during that period.

So-called non-headline crimes were also down in almost all categories. Surprisingly perhaps, car theft comes under this definition of a minor offence. Car thefts are down a full 10pc during the period in question; from 13,959 to 12,500. Speeding offences rose from 2,167 to 2,280 - up 5pc. There were 10,472 incidents of drink-driving - a 4pc decrease.

These figures will not become official until the Garda Commissioner's report for 2003 is published next year. But on the face of it, they suggest that crime is not spiralling out of control as many of us seem to believe.

But the Minister is determined not to loosen the pressure. An extra €91 million is being made available to gardai next year. This will bring the force's budget over the €1 billion mark for the first time. Tough new laws, aimed at crime gangs and their associates, are on the way early in the new year.

The clampdown is the result of a review of crime laws in other jurisdictions ordered by Mr McDowell following the collapse of the Liam Keane trial. The young man may only have had the photographer in mind when he flashed his two-finger sign.

Top gangland drug dealer found dead in Spanish home

By Helen Bruce

Wednesday December 17 2003
THE body of a top Dublin gangland figure who lived a hedonistic lifestyle on the Costa Blanca in Spain was being flown home last night.

Drugs trafficker Liam Judge (44) was found dead in his home in Torrevieja, about 20 miles from Alicante, where he had been living with Tracey Gilligan, the daughter of convicted Dublin drug baron John Gilligan.

The body of Judge, who ran Alicante Plant Hire, a heavy machinery rental business at Las Montesonos, was flown back from Dublin in order to be buried at Allenwood, Co Kildare.

An autopsy showed that Judge died of natural causes. It was understood that 28-year-old Tracey Gilligan was back in Ireland when he died.

Sources feared that Judge may have had a heart attack brought on by his hedonistic lifestyle. "He was drinking up to three bottles of whiskey a day and was also doing cocaine," said one garda source yesterday. "He had a terrible lifestyle and it could have taken its toll. He had a bottle of whiskey for breakfast, lunch and dinner some days."

Judge was associated with the Westies drugs gang based in Blanchardstown. Officers suspect he organised drugs shipments for many criminal gangs here and was able to buy a pub in Spain with the proceeds.

He was being probed by the Criminal Assets Bureau and their investigation could still yield much of his assets.

It is believed Judge went into hiding following the kidnapping in 2002 of his estranged wife, who is not involved in crime. It is believed she was kidnapped following rumours Judge had given the Gardai information on a drug gang. She was later released.

- Helen Bruce

Rising murder rate linked to illegal guns

Sunday Tribune

Nineteen of the 42 homicides carried out so far this year involved the use of firearms
Stephen Collins Political Editor
THE Garda Commissioner, Noel Conroy, is convinced that the increasing availability of illegal guns in this country is linked to the rising murder rate. He told the Oireachtas Committee on Justice during the week that guns were becoming widely available and were being imported into the country along with consignments of drugs and illegal cigarettes.

Conroy pointed out that 19 of the 42 homicides carried out so far this year involved the use of firearms. That compared with 10 involving guns in all of last year. He said that suspects had been identified for many of the murders committed this year and he believed the chances of securing successful convictions were good.

He said that another aspect of the trend was the heavy involvement of many former leading figures from the IRA and other paramilitary organisations in serious crime. The kind of weapons used by paramilitaries had found there way into the hands of organised criminals because of this.

The commissioner said that in an effort to deal with the problem Operation Lance was launched in Dublin last February. This involved a team of gardaí targeting those involved in serious crime using guns and had already resulted in a number of people being brought before the courts. This was followed up last month by Operation Crossover which was designed to detect the unlawful carriage of arms.

Members of the Special Detective Unit and the Emergency Response Unit were involved in this operation which concentrated on known flashpoints.

The commissioner said, however, that there was a problem about turning good garda intelligence work into convictions. He also pointed out that a lot of resources were required to mount surveillance operations which required six or seven officers for each suspect targeted. Even then prosecutions against gangland figures were often difficult to achieve.

"We are targeting individuals and we know who they are but getting the evidence is something different than knowing, that's our problem.

We just can't convert the intelligence into prosecutions." Some leading Irish criminals had left the country because of the pressure they were being put under by the gardaí and the Criminal Assets Bureau, and were now living in Holland and the south of Spain.

However, they had set up operation there to export drugs to Ireland and had built up extensive underground contacts in places like Holland.

As well as the involvement of paramilitaries in organised crime, the influx of non-nationals in recent years had proved another dimension to the crime problem. Some of these people were involved in gangs who were not only involved in the drugs trade but were involved in smuggling, counterfeiting, forgery and money laundering.

Conroy said that the recent Operation Quest, which targeted lap-dancing clubs, was not aimed at securing prosecutions against the women who performed in the clubs.

"On the contrary we are trying to protect these unfortunate young women. Many thought they were coming to take up jobs within the European Union but that didn't happen and they were put into prostitution." Once involved in prostitution these women were moved around the EU at a very fast rate from one country to another.

The commissioner said that in 2001 there were 58 homicides in this country, 52 were classified as murder and six as manslaughter. Out of that total an impressive 51 had been detected.

In 2002, there were 59 homicides, 52 murders and seven manslaughters of which 49 had been detected. So far this year the number of homicides was 49, involving 39 murders and three cases of manslaughter of which 24 have been detected. One of the obvious trends this year was the rising number of homicides which involved guns that amounted to almost half the cases.

Conroy said that suspects had been identified for many of the murders committed during the year to date and the chances of securing successful prosecutions was good. He pointed out that in Limerick city and the surrounding area a very substantial garda operation had been mounted this year and no resources had been spared to deal with the problems that had arisen there. He said that the operation had met with some success.
October 19, 2003