Cocaine Wars

by Mick McCaffrey

  The best account of the origins of the dispute was given to Gardaí by Freddie Thompson when he was arrested on 25 March 1999, on suspicion of shooting at the house of Noel Roche. Roche was then twenty-one years old and was one of the main members of the gang. Thompson told detectives that the feud first kicked off in 1998, when Derek Lodge set Declan Gavin’s motorbike alight. Lodge was twenty-three and lived in Kilworth Road in Drimnagh with his parents, his two brothers and sister. He was a mechanic and had the reputation of being a difficult individual who constantly harassed his neighbours and was generally a troublemaker. He worked in a small Portakabin at the front of the family home and often sold bric-a-brac at various markets around Dublin. He was a violent hothead and had attacked two Gardaí with a hatchet and threatened to ‘cut them into f***ing pieces’ after they searched his house in 1998. Lodge became part of the Gavin/Rattigan gang through his friendship with Noel and John Roche. Lodge and the Roche brothers had lived on the same street all their lives, although Lodge would not have been close to either Brian Rattigan or Declan Gavin. When Gavin’s beloved motorbike was burnt out, he went ballistic and tried to petrol bomb the Lodges’ family home. This led to Lodge retaliating and burning Declan Gavin’s mother’s car with acid, thereby worsening the dispute. Acid attacks on cars, or ‘nitromortizing’, as criminals in the area call it, is a tradition in Crumlin and is seen as sending an effective message because the acid burns deep into the car’s bodywork, meaning that it has to be resprayed.

  Over the next year or so, verbal arguments, fist fights and criminal damage to vehicles and houses were commonplace. Then more serious incidents occurred, such as shots being fired through doors and windows of houses in the early hours of the morning. In most cases Gardaí only learned of these incidents through informants, and when they were made aware that something criminal had occurred, their investigations were stymied by the fact that they usually received little or no co-operation from the injured parties. There was a feeling that ‘This is Crumlin; thanks, but we take care of our own problems.’ The Gardaí were certainly not seen as being part of the solution.

  Brian Rattigan took Derek Lodge’s side in the argument over Declan Gavin’s motorbike. This was because of his close friendship with John and Noel Roche. Shay O’Byrne, the boyfriend of Rattigan’s sister, Sharon, Eddie and Joey Redmond all sided with Rattigan.

  Because of Rattigan’s dominant personality and bullying ways, he did not command loyalty from the whole gang, so others in the group were more than prepared to side with Declan Gavin after the row with Lodge. Staying loyal to Gavin were his brother Aidan, Gavin Byrne, Darren Geoghegan, Freddie Thompson and Paddy Doyle.

  Brian Rattigan and Declan Gavin rose to the top of the gang because they were regarded as being intelligent. Gavin was genuinely smart and had a gift for drug dealing. He had the brain of an accountant and everything was stored in his head – he did not need records. If the gang needed a couple of mules to travel to the Netherlands at short notice, Gavin would immediately know who to choose and would know their mobile phone numbers off the top of his head. If the gang gave half a kilo of coke to a subcontractor five weeks ago at €35,000 up front with the rest due a month later, he always knew that an extra €800 in interest was due, because the balance of €15,000 was a week late. This might not sound like much of a gift, but many members of the gang were not considered very bright. Because of his “smarts”, the gang naturally gravitated towards him. Freddie Thompson in particular was a big ‘Deco’ Gavin fan and spoke about him in reverential terms. Brian Rattigan was not considered as smart, but he had people who were close to him who were very intelligent and knew how to plan the deals and organise the cash. This meant that he was also popular. So, when the split occurred, it was natural that Gavin would lead his side, and that Brian Rattigan would be the boss of the other faction.

  ***

  Rattigan was born on 20 July 1980, and lived at Cooley Road in Drimnagh with his mother, Christine, who was generally known as Dinah, his brother Joey, and his sister Sharon. His other brother, Richard, split his time between the family home and his girlfriend’s house. Brian’s father, Ricky Rattigan, had a massive heart attack while asleep in bed in 1995, and died. It is believed that Sharon Rattigan went to wake up her father but could not rouse him. Then Brian went into the bedroom and realised his dad was dead. The pair are said to have been very close, and the death had a profound effect on the whole family.

  Brian Rattigan is involved in a long-term relationship with Natasha McEnroe from Captains Road in Crumlin. The couple have one child. He previously worked with a builders’ providers company and as a labourer on road-building projects, but had been unemployed since he was released from serving a prison sentence for assault, in February 2001. In April 2001, he was convicted of two counts of assault causing harm at Trim Circuit Court, following an incident that occurred in Navan in June 1999, during which he beat two youths with a sewer rod and a bottle, causing both men serious head injuries. One of the victims required twenty-four stitches, and the other youth needed thirty stitches and even a blood transfusion, such was the extent of his injuries. Brian Rattigan had the reputation of being a very heavy drinker and a regular user of large amounts of cocaine and other illegal drugs. Gardaí regarded Rattigan as being particularly violent and dangerous, and at least two officers would be present at all times whenever they were dealing with him.

  Although tension between the two factions was very high, they bizarrely continued to do business together. This was down to the fact that they were making so much money, so pragmatism prevailed. Although a shot might have been fired into a gang member’s house on a Friday night, the following morning the victim and perpetrator would meet to break up a fresh drugs shipment.

  It is estimated that at the time of the Holiday Inn seizure, the main members of the gang were making at least €6,000 cash in a good week, after all their expenses, Garda seizures, bad debts and everything else were taken into account. Teenagers making such serious money are often tempted by the finer things in life, and the Rattigan and Gavin gang members were no different. Despite the fact that the CAB could seize assets that could not be accounted for, the gang members made no attempt to hide their wealth and revelled in the fact that they were earning such vast amounts of money. Some bought top-of-the-range BMW jeeps that had come on the market in Ireland for the first time and cost over €70,000; others invested in buying or renting penthouse apartments across Dublin, in Spain and further afield. Taking four or five long-haul holidays a year was standard practice, and Declan Gavin never left his house without having at least €500 cash on him. The majority of the gang members did not have jobs but had lifestyles akin to the country’s top bank executives.

  The first documented feud incident occurred on 4 March 1999, when a shot was fired through the front window of Noel Roche’s house on Kilworth Road around midnight. Noel Roche was extremely close to Brian Rattigan. Declan Gavin and Freddie Thompson had been the main suspects. Indeed, when the house was shot at, a neighbour heard a shout from the Roches of: ‘If anyone is interested, it was ‘Deco’ Gavin.’ On 13 March, two shots were discharged at Noel Roche’s front door at around 1.00 a.m. This was the incident that Freddie Thompson had been arrested for when he gave the first account of why the feud had begun. Declan Gavin was also arrested, but there was insufficient evidence to charge either man, and they were both released without charge. A fragile peace descended after this, and the two sides obviously made up and continued to work together, because there were no incidents – except Declan Gavin’s drug-possession arrest in August 1999 – until the Holiday Inn seizure in March 2000.

  Brian Rattigan and Declan Gavin had once been the best of friends. After the Holiday Inn seizure they were now the worst of enemies. It was clear that something had to give.

  2

  A Night of Drama

  BY THE SUMMER of 2001, the fragile truce between Declan Gavin’s and Brian Rattigan’s gangs had broken. On 5 June, sho
ts were fired into Darren Geoghegan’s home at Galtymore Drive in Crumlin during a drive-by shooting. Noel Roche and Brian Rattigan were suspected of being behind the attack, although Gardaí did not have enough evidence to arrest them. Shooting at Darren Geoghegan’s home was a big deal.

  Born on 3 November 1979, Geoghegan was fast developing into a key figure in the Gavin gang, and had started to take control of handling the gang’s money, which was one of the most important and sought-after jobs. Geoghegan and twenty-year-old ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson were extremely close and usually travelled in the same car, plotting how they were going to grow their empire. In April 2001, three shotgun blasts were fired through the front door and a downstairs window of a house in Lucan at around 3.40 a.m. Gardaí rushed to the scene, and the householder told them that the only reason he could think why his house had been shot up was that he had been involved in a fight in a nightclub two weeks previously. He had thought no more about the incident, but when Gardaí heard the names of the two men he had fought with – Freddie Thompson and Darren Geoghegan – the incident made perfect sense to them. The gang members had long memories and would not just forget about the minor row.

  Shooting at Geoghegan’s home, then, was a no-no, especially as his grandfather had narrowly avoided injury, and Declan Gavin was furious when he heard. He swore revenge. That summer was shaping up to be a long and tense one.

  ***

  It was a night that Joey Rattigan had been looking forward to for many months; 24 August 2001 was the day he turned eighteen and became an adult in the eyes of the law, although his involvement in crime meant that he had lost his childhood innocence many years before. Brian Rattigan was determined that his younger brother would have a night that he would never forget, and the celebrations had been planned for weeks. The Rattigan family home at Cooley Road in Drimnagh was to be the venue. The three-bedroom corporation house was located in one of a number of cul-de-sacs that are known locally as keyholes. Joey turned eighteen on a Friday and spent the day cleaning the house and buying slabs of beer for his guests, knowing that the party was likely to be fairly lively. Brian Rattigan had the drugs taken care of. Being a major dealer, he had no problem sourcing cocaine and he had plenty of white powder in his bedroom, if any of the partygoers got sick of alcohol.

  Dinah Rattigan, Brian and Joey’s mother, had no problem with opening up the house for a good knees-up. The family home had the reputation of being a bit of an open house anyway. Dinah was planning to go into the city centre with her sister and other relations, and would head back to her house after the pubs had closed to celebrate with her youngest lad. Both Brian and Joey still lived at home, and nineteen-year-old Sharon had also yet to leave the nest. Brian’s girlfriend, Natasha McEnroe, was a regular visitor to the Rattigan household. She usually spent at least a couple of nights a week there. Another regular house guest was Shay O’Byrne, Sharon’s fella. The nineteen-year-old was very much a part of the family. Apart from his long-term relationship with Sharon, O’Byrne was also involved in Brian Rattigan’s drug gang. The Rattigan family were tight and looked after each other. Ritchie Rattigan, who was exactly a year older than Brian, lived between the family home and another house on Cooley Road with his girlfriend. Although Brian was nearly three years older than Joey, the two were very close. Brian had been teaching Joey his trade – drug dealing and intimidation – and saw a bright future for his brother in his gang, which was growing bigger by the month. The two lads shared many of the same friends, and the group was loyal and fiercely protective of each other. From the early evening, a steady group of friends and associates began to converge on the house; the booze was flowing freely and the music playing loudly.

  Joey Redmond, one of the older members of the gang, arrived. He was a few years older than Joey Rattigan, but the two were good friends. He was also from Drimnagh. Joey Redmond was a serious criminal with convictions for drug dealing. As the night went on, the music got louder, and several people at the party started snorting lines of cocaine, including Brian Rattigan. The banter was flowing and the crowd was in good spirits. The birthday boy was taken out into the front garden and given the bumps to celebrate him becoming a man.

  Some time in the evening, Shane Maloney and John Roche arrived at the Rattigans’. They had spent the evening at the Kestrel pub in Walkinstown, before going to Coco’s nightclub in Tallaght. Shane Maloney, a twenty-year-old from nearby Drimnagh Road, drove his silver Nissan Micra and parked it outside the Rattigans’. John Roche was a neighbour and good friend of Joey Rattigan’s. Roche was twenty-two years old and lived with his parents and two brothers, one of whom, Noel, was also a key player in the Rattigan gang. Although he was jobless, John Roche led a lavish lifestyle and had come to the attention of Gardaí who suspected that he was making thousands of euro each week dealing drugs. Despite the attention of the law, Roche had only minor convictions for road traffic incidents and possession of an offensive weapon.

  After 1.00 a.m. Dinah Rattigan arrived back from town to join in the festivities. She was with one of her sisters, her sister’s partner and her niece. They had a few drinks with the younger crowd. The night was shaping up to be a memorable one.

  A few kilometres away, in Crumlin village, the night of Brian Rattigan’s sworn enemy, Declan Gavin, was coming to an end. Gavin had begun the evening at a twenty-first birthday party in the Transport Club in Crumlin with his friend Eamon Daly and Daly’s girlfriend, as well as a group of other people. After spending a few hours at the party, the group headed into town before going their separate ways. Gavin went to Club M nightclub in Blooms Hotel in the busy Temple Bar area. He left after 2.00 a.m., and met back up with Eamon Daly. The pair decided to head to Abrakebabra at the Crumlin Shopping Centre and get some food to soak up the night’s pints. They left Daly’s girlfriend and her friends in town, and it was agreed that they would meet up again later. Gavin and Daly hailed a taxi and arrived in Crumlin just before 2.30 a.m.

  Although Crumlin and Drimnagh cover a large area, there are some traditions that are usually strictly observed among young people living there. At the end of a night out, they invariably head back towards home and get some food, before deciding whether to call it a night and go home or maybe head to a house party that somebody is throwing. Because the same people around the same age usually went to the same places, most people knew each other. Many of those going to Abrakebabra on the night of 24 into 25 August 2001 would have been at school together, played football together or just bumped into one another in the ‘chipper’ each week. Declan Gavin was an instantly recognisable figure to his peers hanging around the shopping centre that night. He was a month away from his twenty-first birthday and was planning a massive party that was bound to attract a couple of hundred people at least. People knew that Gavin was an up-and-coming drug dealer, and he was known to flash the cash and be generous, probably more out of showing off than actual kindness. If you were looking to score with a group of young ones, buying their grub at the end of the night wasn’t a bad way to start. And ‘Deco’ Gavin was certainly never short of cash. The little setback at the Holiday Inn in March 2000 hadn’t dented his confidence and it was a case of business as usual for Gavin. He was still moving large amounts of cocaine and ecstasy around the Dublin 12 area and beyond. He was expecting to be charged over what happened that day with Graham Whelan and Philip Griffiths and his attitude was that if he was going to jail, he may as well make as much cash as possible before being sent down.

  When the cab pulled up outside Abrakebabra, a row was developing between a group of lads who Gavin knew and some strangers who were in a parked car. There was a lot of shouting and a few golf clubs were produced. It looked like serious violence was about to occur. Gavin was in good form though, and went over and intervened. He spoke to the lads he knew and had a word with the strangers, telling them that nobody wanted to see any trouble. He managed to broker a peace deal, and the car drove off without any punches being thrown. Over the next half an hour, Declan
Gavin met about a dozen people, all of whom were later tracked down by Gardaí. A group of three women later said that Gavin was in good form and was not injured or bleeding in any way. Some time before 3.00 a.m., a few people saw Gavin kissing an unknown girl outside the restaurant, and it was clear that his night was ending on a high note. He was spending his time moving in and out of Abrakebabra and chatting casually to anyone he knew. Just before 3.00 a.m., a group of friends saw Gavin outside the ‘chipper’. Another group of five friends arrived at Abrakebabra at around 3.15 a.m., having come across the city from Finglas, where they had spent the night in the Castle nightclub. John Malone, Justin Beatty, Andrew Murray, James Fullam and David Byrne bumped into Gavin outside Abrakebabra, and the group had a conversation before Gavin headed back into the restaurant to get some food. While queuing up for his burger, another group of women arrived in Abrakebabra and bumped into him. They all knew him and he was in good form that night, even generously paying for their food. When the four friends left the restaurant, Gavin was outside with a group of people and asked the girls if he could share a taxi with them. The boyfriend of one of the women was on the way to pick them up, so they declined Gavin’s offer of a shared car.

  Back at the house party in the Rattigans’, some of the guests were getting hungry. Shane Maloney and John Roche suggested driving to Abrakebabra in Crumlin village to get some food. Abrakebabra on the Crumlin Road was around 50 metres from Sundrive Road Garda Station, on the junction of Crumlin Road and Sundrive Road. It was one of a terrace of shops fronting onto the Crumlin Road, adjacent to the main front entrance of the shopping centre. It had large plate-glass windows and a glass door, and seated around twenty people in an ‘L’ shape around a counter. To the rear of the ‘chipper’, behind the counter, was a small kitchen area. Behind the seating at the counter were ladies’ and gents’ toilets, and the front door was covered by a canopy. Outside was a little-used taxi rank, where cars usually parked.