Crime World

The tag ‘Bandit Country’ was long used for what was once described as lawless ‘South Armagh’. But times have changed and now the towns situated along the border region of Ireland want to put the dark days of the past behind them and be recognised as thriving modern communities. So how do we move forward while recognising the potentially incendiary political and constitutional proposals to police r...

A French court has convicted a gang of eight men including four members of the Rathkeale Rovers Organised Crime group for trafficking rhino horn and ivory between Europe and Asia. But while sentences have been handed down, the Irish traders remain at large and are likely living under aliases, as environmentalist groups urge gardai to track the fugitives down. So what are criminals doing with rhino...

In life they formed a prolific burglary gang that terrorised the country and made use of the motorway system as a getaway route. Criminals Graham Taylor, Karl Freeman and Dean Maguire died together last July in a horror road crash when the car they were travelling in collided head-on with a lorry as they drove down the wrong side of the N7. But what is the legacy of the trio and has there been any...

He suffered a brutal death at the hands of his wife and her former FBI agent dad, but the path to justice for Jason Corbett’s family has been far from clear. Found guilty by a North Carolina court of second degree murder, Molly and Tom Martens were originally sent to jail but had their convictions overturned by an Appeals Court before the Supreme Court subsequently agreed that the trial had been u...

They are two of Ireland’s most-dangerous offenders but both have just walked free from jail and are now living amongst communities. Celyn Eadon stabbed his mother to death and racked up 15 unprovoked assaults while behind bar, where he was treated in the National Violence Reduction Unit at the Midlands Prison. While Anthony Quigley has repeatedly attacked women and has been diagnosed with having a...

It was once a city under siege where ruthless gangs and one notorious family ruled with fear and intimidation. But a massive crackdown on crime, followed by an injection of €300 million in regeneration funds restored Limerick’s reputation as a cosmopolitan modern city. But like everywhere else, an underworld of crime still exists and last week more than 400 gardai and military personnel staged a s...

He’s the art detective who hunts stolen masterpieces and who re-unites works of art with their rightful owners years after they have been looted. From lost works by artists like Picasso or Warhol to flash designer watches worth more than €100,000, Chris Marinello of Art Recovery International has brought home more than half a billion dollars worth of missing goods over his three decades in the bus...

A UN report released earlier this summer estimates that thousands of ISIS fighters have poured into Afghanistan where Taliban rule may once again provide a breeding ground for extremism. Already a suicide bombing at Kabul airport has raised fears that the terror group is set to make a frightening comeback. But should we be more concerned about the events in New Zealand last week where a lone wolf...

The seizure of 20 tonnes of cocaine on board the MSC Gayane at the Packer Marine Terminal in Philadelphia two years ago remains the largest in US customs history. This month, the eight and final crew member from the boat was sentenced for his role in the operation which planned to land €1 billion worth of coke into Europe. Behind the scenes lie Balkan drug traffickers linked to the Irish Kinahan o...

State witness Joseph O’Callaghan gave up his name and his old life when he gave evidence against gangland killers Brian Kenny and Thomas Hinchon. Following their conviction for the murder of Jonathan O’Reilly, he was given a new identity by An Garda Siochana and moved away never to be heard from again. Dubbed a ‘rat’ after breaking the sacred underworld code of ‘Omerta’ Joey 'The Lips' and his fam...

He once enjoyed a lifestyle fit for a Sultan in Dubai but now Daniel Kinahan is running scared in his desert bolthole as his €2 million per month mafia wage bill threatens to overwhelm him and turn his own against him. Cash flow problems, the arrest of his arch enemy, Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, deep within the Spanish territory he once controlled and his increased anxiety that he can trust just one l...

For countless young men and women living with addiction each day is a chaotic tapestry of crime, drug taking and violence. The well-worn paths to prison and rehab often fail to change the course of their lives and instead lead them straight back to the communities and gangs where the spiral continues. But change can happen and hope is never lost. On this episode of Crime World, Nicola Tallant talk...

Considered one of Italy’s most dangerous fugitives, suspected of being a boss of the Camorra mafia and the one-time owner of two stolen Van Gogh masterpieces, Raffaele Imperiale is now counting the cost of his life of crime. Arrested earlier this month in Dubai, he is facing hefty charges back in Italy and a lengthy prison sentence for his role at the very top of organised crime. But Imperiale is...

Puppy farming has become a multi-million euro business, and thanks to the huge demand in the UK, Ireland has become a major player in the market. But much of the trade is based on deceit and maximising profit, which comes at the expense of the animals and their new owners. It can be a callous, cruel trade. Here, Eamon Dillon talks to Ian Briggs, chief inspector of the RSPCA's special operations un...

His arrest is the latest chapter in the extraordinary saga of Gerry 'the Monk' Hutch, regarded as one of Ireland’s most wily criminals. In prison in Madrid following his dramatic arrest on the Costa Del Sol, the Dubliner appears to be finally losing his battle for freedom. But after six years in hiding and four months as a fugitive what will The Monk do next? Nicola Tallant chats with Sunday World...

HE was the ‘geek’ who ended up in prison after becoming a college drug dealer - but now Niko Vorobyov has made it his mission to get to the heart of the global narcotics scene. Reformed dope dealer Niko’s journey takes him to Mexico, where he meets the family drug lord ‘El Chapo’; an off-duty cop with an opium habit in Tehran; and the brother of arch-narco Pablo Escobar in Colombia. At the bottom...

He’s 30 years covering tales of murder and once began his day being briefed on the nightly body count of New York city, where he knocked on doors and fronted-up killers on the tough daily beat. But tabloid man Brad Hunter says that despite covering hundreds of stories there have always been those that stayed with him - and decades into a career in murder he says that there are many victims he can’...

It was once a clearly divided underworld where paramilitary groups ruled with fear in a strictly organised way. There were rules, sides and an unwritten code where everyone knew their place and the terrorists were king. But over the past few decades things have changed and Northern Ireland’s gangland now resembles a mixing bowl of hungry-for-work former terrorists, Instagram mobsters and dangerous...

Killer Dave Mahon walked free from prison this week after serving five years for the manslaughter of his stepson, 23-year-old Dean Fitzpatrick, who he knifed to death in 2013. Just five years previous, Dean’s sister Amy went missing without a trace on Spain’s Costa Del Sol aged just 15 after Mahon and their mother Audrey relocated there to start a new life. But with both children gone in horrific...

It’s a time for celebration and a place to remember the values and morals which shape an individual’s journey through life. But sometimes funerals can be hijacked and turned into a display of wealth and power, which is totally at odds with the values of society. As the dust settles on the funeral of prolific burglar Dean Maguire, which made headlines across the world, Nicola Tallant chats to journ...

It’s a missing-person’s case that has cast a dark shadow over a small town in County Mayo where the haunting face of Sandra Collins stares out from posters more than 20 years since she was last seen. However, Sandra has not been forgotten despite the passage of time. Her brother and sister still hope that they can one day lay her to rest and find their own peace from the nightmare of her mystery d...

He headed up one side of two notorious feuding gangs that claimed 15 lives in 10 years in Ireland’s first cocaine war. And even behind bars Brian Rattigan organised assassinations, drug deals and terrorised communities with his fearsome reputation. Now, as he prepares for release from jail, claims that he is a changed man who has made peace with his arch enemy are being taken with a grain of salt...

A half tonne of cocaine disguised as charcoal, which landed in Rotterdam, was seized at the port after an intelligence-led operation headed up by Irish gardai. The drugs, worth more than €30 million, were destined for the Irish market where a generation of young and educated cocaine users are directly funding violent drug cartels who are getting filthy rich and ever more powerful. So how does a ha...

A half tonne of cocaine disguised as charcoal which landed in Rotterdam was seized at the port after an intelligence-led operation headed up by Irish gardai. The drugs worth more than €30 million were destined for the Irish market where a generation of young and educated cocaine users are directly funding violent drug cartels who are getting filthy rich and ever more powerful. So how does a half t...

It’s a tale made for the big screen – a Hollywood starlet threatening to expose an illicit love affair, a missing diary revealing a web of intrigue from a president to a mafia boss and secret police files that could hold the truth of one of the greatest cover-ups in modern history. Now, a former Los Angeles policeman says he knows just what happened the night Marilyn Monroe died. It’s a story that...