Crime World

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...

Dutch crime reporter Peter R. De Vries died in hospital yesterday, a week after he was shot on a busy Amsterdam street in an attack which has drawn outrage across Europe. As his family and friends mourn his loss, police are focusing on the advisory role he was playing to state witness Nabil B, the underworld crime figure set to give evidence against his one-time gang boss Ridouan Taghi. Taghi, an...

It’s just three years since a hitman attempted to murder gang boss Owen Maguire, leaving him paralysed and dividing a town’s underworld into two feuding sides intent on wiping each other out. Since then, six assassination attempts, four brutal murders - including the torture and dismemberment of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods - and a huge garda effort to protect the local community has turned Drogh...

It may seem like a simple solution to the war on drugs – legalise weed and cocaine, regulate the market and then tax the profits. This week, 100 youth workers in Ireland joined forces against prohibition and are calling for just that. But is such dramatic change practical and what are the pitfalls when it comes to legalising drugs? Do our youth workers really want Ireland to radicalise that much o...

Politicians, police and media colleagues in The Netherlands have been horrified by the shooting of famous crime journalist Peter R. De Vries, who was gunned down in Amsterdam on Tuesday night. The well-known journalist has been working as an advisor to Nabil B. the state witness in the infamous Marengo trial. The central character in this high-profile trial is Ridouan Taghi, the Dutch-Moroccan org...

Mob boss Daniel Kinahan has been keeping his head down in Dubai since a BBC Panorama documentary catapulted him and his links to boxing into the spotlight last February. But now, a determined American lawyer has put his name in the headlines again and this time in the Emirates where he is desperate to sever all links to crime and to sports-wash his reputation. So why has Kinahan and the MTK boxing...

She was the teenage drug mule who became a household name and when she was jailed in Peru for attempting to smuggle 11 kilos of cocaine to Ibiza her fame was cemented. But since then, the story of Michaela McCollum and her sidekick Melissa Reid has seen many ups and downs and while Reid has faded into oblivion, Instagram sensation McCollum continues to court celebrity. Cancelled by Piers Morgan, c...

It’s the case that has baffled Northern Ireland - and on the one-year anniversary of the discovery of the body of tragic schoolboy Noah Donohue in a drain, it is clear that there are still more questions than answers. This week, a preliminary inquest into the 14-year-old’s death has heard that a prisoner has now said his former cellmate confessed to the teenager's murder and that the PSNI are now...