Crime World

DUBLIN was a city of grinding poverty, mass unemployment and a never-ending queue of young people seeking a future abroad when the heroin epidemic hit with catastrophic force. Later, as the city transformed in the 1990s into a vibrant capital, ecstasy took over as the drug of choice and, later, a cocaine goldrush followed. But, as street dealers became millionaires during five decades of drug abus...

He was the shadowy Cartel lieutenant who was rumoured to be out to get UFC star Conor McGregor after a pub brawl at the height of the Kinahan and Hutch feud. But convicted drug dealer Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan was this week welcomed into McGregor’s pub and into this family when he was introduced as the new partner of the sports stars sister Aoife. Nicola Tallant talks to Niall Donald about Conor McG...

HE was a terrifying gangland mob boss who ran his empire from a gated compound in County Meath, where he is alleged to have held slaves and forced them to do his bidding. Amongst a litany of terrible crimes, he is suspected of murdering a young man and his pregnant girlfriend, cremating their bodies and then directing a campaign of intimidation on their grieving families. When he made a smug 'self...

BRITISH drug baron Robert Dawes became known as the pathfinder for a generation of criminals, including the Kinahan Cartel, when he was one of the first to make Dubai his home and the headquarters of his trans-global empire. Ancient money transfer systems, a blind eye to suitcases of cash and easily attained residential permits all added to the attraction of the United Arab Emirates for Dawes and...

RAIDS on the homes of notorious crime brothers, the discovery of a cocaine mixing factory and the seizure of a home and equestrian facility owned by a Cartel odd bod - welcome to Crime World. Today Nicola Tallant is chatting with Niall Donald and Eamon Dillon about the Dundon brothers' comeback, Ross Browning's property portfolio and the far-right celebrity hanging out with a convicted criminal. H...

He's the Colombian narco who rose from humble origins to become the biggest wholesaler of cocaine in the world. Dairo Antonio Usuga, better known by his nickname, Otoniel, used torture and murder to rise to the top of the feared Gulf Clan Cartel, but he cut a different figure earlier this month when he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in a New York court and agreed to hand over $216 million in r...

VICTIMS of crime can often feel forgotten in the process of justice, but what benefits are there to bring them together with an offender? Nicola Tallant talks with Dr Ian Marder from Maynooth University about restorative justice and it’s meaning for the victims of crime. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Gilbert King was asked by a Judge to look into a case of wrongful conviction he was shocked by the request and intrigued by the story. Michelle Scholfield was murdered in 1987, and her husband Leo, who protests his innocence, has remained behind bars for the crime ever since. In King's new podcast series Bone Valley, he looks at the trial which put Schofield behind bars, shocking new evidence...

Organised crime is now posing as big a threat to countries in the EU as terrorism a commissioner warned this week. And as criminals including Irish Godfather George 'the Penguin' Mitchell are left reeling after another major encrypted phone hack it seems like police are fighting fire with fire as the battle against the mobs heats up. This week on Crime World’s weekend show I’m joined by my colleag...

He is Ireland’s most wily Godfather of Crime - a criminal so slippery he has managed to evade the law for decades while rising to the very top of Europe’s underworld. But has a phone been the undoing of George ‘The Penguin’ MItchell, or will he waddle away from the clutches of law enforcement yet again. This week I’m talking to Niall Donald about the massive police hack of the 'Exclu' encrypted ne...

He’s the Kinahan fixer who decked out his house with Plasma screens and bullet-resistant glass, but now Brian Mahony has gone and the keys of his palace are with the Criminal Assets Bureau. After climbing the career ladder in the mob, Mahony has now given up his assets without a fight and a community will soon see a for sale sign outside what was once the best-kept house in the neighbourhood. Toda...

She is the self-declared Queen of Canada whose followers drive in giant motor homes through towns and sleepy villages spreading her word. Filipina Romana Didulo is a QAnon influencer with a little known past that has convinced tens of thousands of Canadians that they don’t have to abide by laws, get vaccinated or even pay their mortgages. To the lilts of the Boney M song Rasputin she travels the c...

THE death of a 14-year-old boy in the Northern Ireland seaside town of Portrush has long been a mystery, and has posed a myriad of painful questions for his family. Ryan Quinn suffered a horrendous end when he got stuck in a cattle grid on a dark January night in 2009 as a train hurtled towards the frightened teenager. But what appeared to be a tragic accident would soon become a murder case when...

THEY are the crime gang who took control of Canada's lucrative cocaine trade while proudly displaying their Irish roots. The West End mob began their life as a prolific bank heist crew who traded on their status as outsiders in French speaking Montreal. But, when they struck a deal with Colombia's Cali Cartel the Irish mob became Canada's kings of coke. Niall Donald chats with Toronto Sun journali...

THE murder of Robbie Lawlor in a Belfast housing estate continues to be the subject of a major police inquiry, with the PSNI and prosecutors insisting they have no interest in a suspected Dundon hit team named and identified during a recent bail hearing. The circumstances surrounding the 2020 assassination of the notorious Dublin drug dealer marks an extraordinary merging of North and South crimin...

Paul Crosby and Gerard Cruise had to listen to the tragic victim impact statement of Elizabeth Mulready, mum of murdered teen Keane Mulready-Woods, as she told a court this week how inconceivable it was that the sadistic minds of those who killed her child could have lived amongst her community. Details of the murder and dismemberment of the 17-year-old were heard during a sentence hearing for the...

Paul Crosby and Gerard Cruise had to listen to the tragic victim impact statement of Elizabeth Mulready, mum of murdered teen Keane Mulready-Woods, as she told a court this week how inconceivable it was that the sadistic minds of those who killed her child could have lived amongst her community. Details of the murder and dismemberment of the 17-year-old were heard during a sentence hearing for the...

SEVEN years ago this week journalist Alan Sherry was sent on a news assignment like no other - and on an otherwise ordinary Friday, he found himself in the middle of the Regency Hotel gun attack. Today, Alan gives Nicola Tallant and Niall Donald an eyewitness account of the infamous incident at the centre of the trial of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch. The panel also discuss the conviction of a member of...

AFTER 54 days at the Special Criminal Court the Regency murder trial came to an end with a verdict promised by April 17.Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch will remain in custody as three Judges retire to consider the case against him for murder, while co-accused Jason Bonney and Paul Murphy were told they could remain on bail. Nicola Tallant chats with Niall Donald to discuss the closing statements made by de...

THE case for and against Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch closed today with the prosecution and defence addressing the court for a final time. The State have concluded that The Monk was one of two fake gunmen who shot David Byrne, while his side say he is an innocent man and there is no evidence to prove his guilt. Nicola Tallant talks with Niall Donald about the two arguments and the judges who now have to...

LAWYERS at the Regency trial will enter the final stretch tomorrow when the closing speeches to the three-judge panel at the Special Criminal Court get underway. Just one of the three accused, Jason Bonney, has produced defence witnesses, whose testimony put into question the State's case that he was the driver of a black BMW jeep used on February 5, 2016. Lawyers for the State have suggested to o...

HE was the notorious Cosa Nostra boss who lived in hiding for 30 years and who was responsible for terrorist atrocities against Italy. Matteo Messina Denaro was amongst a group of violent mafia bosses who hit back at Italian magistrates, their families and body guards with lethal bomb attacks during the early 1990s when the brave judges took on the notorious criminal organisation. For decades, he...

CELTIC tiger businessman Marcus Sweeney once appeared to be the man who had everything - successful investment interests, a fast car and Ireland's most-beautiful model on his arm. But this week, his final facade of respectability fell when a Judge described him as “up to his oxters’ in organised crime. From his heyday as a Dublin restaurateur and partner of tragic Katy French to money laundering f...

HE was an A-list star of the criminal underworld, a gangster so wily that he travelled the world amassing a £100million fortune and died not from a bullet, but from his love of a sun-kissed tan. Dubbed 'The Pimpernel' for his ability to evade the law, Mickey Green's life as a mobster - which spanned an incredible five decades - personifies the changing face of organised crime. From the Costa del c...

A SHOCKING murder in Lurgan, Co Armagh leaves a pregnant woman dead, a family devastated and a community in fear of a killer on the loose. So, what happened in the home of Natalie McNally just days before Christmas when she was stabbed to death despite being 15 weeks pregnant? Nicola Tallant talks with Sunday World journalist Ciaran O’Neill who has been covering her murder and following developmen...