Crime World

The life of an undercover operative embedded deep in the world of drugs gangs and money launderers is far from ordinary. And it's rare we get an insight into the skills and personality traits required in such a high-risk situation. But, in his new book 'The Betrayer', elite undercover customs officer Guy Stanton tells author Peter Walsh just what it took to live under a mask while mixing with cart...

THE secretive Witness Protection Programme has been thrust into the spotlight with the decision of Jonathan Dowdall to turn State witness against his former neighbour and friend Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch. But what is the Programme and when did it start? Is it a golden ticket out of trouble or a poison chalice for those who sign up? Nicola Tallant chats with Maynooth University lecturer Aaron Harte Hu...

The trial of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch looks set to go ahead next week despite new witness statements and the dramatic turn around of his former co- accused Jonathan Dowdall. The Special Criminal Court has been told that the trial is ‘all systems go’ to start and that Hutch is anxious to proceed in his not guilty plea to the murder of David Byrne. But do documents leaked on social media purporting to...

It took two gunmen just 21 seconds to murder drug dealer Sean Fox in a packed Belfast bar in an assassination which was meticulously planned, calm and ruthless. Captured on CCTV before and after the Sunday afternoon killing, the assassins wore distinctive clothes and escaped on foot, disappearing into a Belfast housing estate without trace. So what does the murder tell us about the killers and why...

IRISH gangster John Gilligan managed a smile for the cameras this week after appearing in a Spanish Court on drug charges. The trial of the 70-year-old mobster was put back until next April after his son Darren failed to show up in court, while Gilligan himself had failed to reach agreement on the sentence he will accept from State Prosecutors. Journalist Gerard Couzens was in court to witness the...

The killing of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool on August 22 has left Merseyside's underworld reeling from a major crackdown on organised crime. The little girl, who was shot when her mother opened the door of their home after hearing commotion outside, will forever be remembered as the ultimate innocent victim of gangland crime. This week, Thomas Cashman was charged with her murder...

A former Garda Superintendent has been jailed for six-and-a-half years after he was caught with more than €250,000 worth of cannabis. But the investigation into John ‘Spud’ Murphy began because of his suspected links to the Hutch Organised crime group and the passing of information to them. Before his arrest in Spain, Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch became aware of a European Arrest Warrant issued for him...

The trial of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch for the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel has been put back for a few weeks after dramatic developments in the Special Criminal Court. Hutch stepped into the dock hours after the court heard his neighbour and lifelong family friend Jonathan Dowdall had turned State witness against him. During his sentence hearing for the lesser charge of facilitating th...

Trainee journalists often have to find their feet in a dog-eat-dog world, where you are only as good as your last byline. And many of those who have been landed onto the crime beat have literally had to learn on their feet in the most bizarre circumstances. Sunday World features and motoring editor Daragh Keany is nowadays more at home in a top-of-the-range Mercedes or flying first class to an exo...

The Kinahan organisation has been financially pulverised after a raid on properties connected to money launderer Johnny Morrissey uncovered what police believe to be the mob’s internal accounts, including pay roll, lists of assets and names of debtors and creditors. A number of charities based around Marbella are now suspected of being part of the Kinahan money laundering machine, along with a str...

A wider investigation into how the State believe Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch directed a criminal gang and corrupted a retired police officer is on-going outside the Regency Hotel trial, which is due to get underway next week. Hutch was arrested at Wheatfield Prison on Wednesday and quizzed about his links to the former Garda officer, along with his involvement in running a criminal network suspected of...

Former Sinn Fein Councillor Jonathan Dowdall and his father Patrick have pleaded guilty today to their roles in the Regency Hotel shooting of David Byrne. The pleas come days before Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch goes on trial for murder in the Special Criminal Court in a trial expected to last a number of months. So who is Jonathan Dowdall and how did he end up in the dock for one of the most notorious c...

Murder victim Tony Dempsey’s end is as grim as a society could ever imagine. For 10 days his body lay decomposing in a Dublin flat while drug users came and went and neighbours complained about the smell. Gardai believe the 28-year-old was killed by someone he knew and was left to rot in a city centre drug den where addicts came for their fix and to shoot up. So who was Tony Dempsey and how did he...

The Ploughing Championships are an annual highlight in the calendar for those living in rural Ireland who work the land and who don their wellies for the biggest outdoor get-together in Europe. This week, Crime World travelled to the event to discuss one of the biggest issues for communities all over the country – how cocaine use is changing the face of rural Ireland. Nicola Tallant and Sunday Wor...

He is Ireland’s most notorious rapist whose first attack sparked the controversial 'C Case' which saw the State pitched against the parents of his 13-year-old victim, who the courts ruled could travel to the UK for an abortion such was the suicide risk. Brute Simon McGinley went on to carry out another horrendous sexual assault on an elderly woman in her own home and has spent the past two decades...

BANK robber and drug dealer Kevin 'Maxi' McAlorum had to dodge plenty of enemies during his long criminal career as Belfast’s most-notorious gangster. But in the end it was illness that got him, and he was laid to rest in true gangland style in a horse-drawn hearse pulled by plumed Friesian stallions. So what secrets did the notorious 'Maxi' take to his grave and what did he gain from his long and...

HE is New York’s most notorious Russian mobster, who made and lost a fortune from heroin trafficking, tax fraud and diamond smuggling. A gulag survivor hardened by the harsh punishments of the Soviet Union, Boris Biba Nayfeld became a gang enforcer and later a mob boss suspected of murder, torture and doing business with the Mafia’s infamous 'Five Families'.A larger-than-life, vodka swilling, ches...

FLASH Johnny Morrissey became the first of the Kinahan 'SEVEN' to be arrested this week when Spanish police swooped on him for laundering a phenomenal €350,000 a day for the mob. The feared enforcer, sanctioned by U.S. authorities along with the top command Christy Kinahan Snr and his sons Daniel and Christopher Jnr, is now behind bars and sources say he has reached the end of the road in a crimin...

It was a story that read like the start of a true crime bestseller – a teenage girl is found wandering on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, a team of experts are brought together to discover who she is and pencil drawings depict a cruel sex trafficking ring. Dubbed 'GPO girl', Samantha Azzopardi sparked a major Garda investigation in 2013 when she posed as a vulnerable young teen who’d lost the power of...

Automatic weapons sold legally in the US are flowing over the border into Mexico to arm narco terrorists who control the drug supply that floods back. Deadly drug cartels are using 50-calibre rifles - used to rip through armoured vehicles - against police and the military along with AK-47s and AR-15s in gang wars that are claiming tens of thousands of lives. Journalist Ioan Grillo, who has reporte...

The last suspect in a horrific stabbing spree that killed 10 and wounded 18 in western Canada is dead following his capture, and police hope the stunning end to a gripping hunt that stretched into a fourth day will bring some peace to victims' families. In an incredible scenario the famed Royal Canadian Mountain Police have been criticised for their slow response times at the tiny indigenous reser...

It’s a life alien to many but for prisoners the daily grind of jail time is a heady mix of boredom, survival and opportunism. Smuggled contraband brings power, drugs and alcohol are a way to escape the four walls and, for many staff and workers, are seen as a means to an end. Today I’m talking with Sunday World journalist, Eamon Dillon about the strange world of prison and how the close proximity...

It’s the white gold that has turned street dealers into billionaires and corrupted politicians, police and even the judiciary with its promises of wealth beyond dreams. Cocaine starts out life as a leaf on a tree in the jungles of south and central America but how does it get to the streets of Ireland and how many people die along the way? Today I’m talking with film maker Toby Muse as he traces a...

Cocaine cowboy Patrick Irwin is being hunted after he assaulted a lawyer in a midlands town and stole his Porsche car from outside a bar. The convicted criminal has already served time for assaulting a Garda who he viciously punched during a search of his car while on bail for serious drug offences. Once a powerful gang boss who controlled Ireland’s north west drug turf from his hometown of Sligo,...

What is it that fascinates us about murder and that makes us want to know how the minds of killers work. Are we trying to protect ourselves in a seemingly dark and dangerous world or do we have a morbid fascination with death. Today I’m talking to Criminologist John Deane O’Keeffe about the psychopaths amongst us and whether nature or nurture forms the primal instincts to kill. Hosted on Acast. Se...