Cocaine Wars

by Mick McCaffrey

  It was a hammer blow because the amount exceeded €10,000, he was facing a mandatory ten-year sentence. It was a schoolboy error on his part, but it was a massive victory for Gardaí, who knew that Rattigan would soon be off the streets for a long stretch. They hoped his absence would bring some respite from the feuding. He was arrested, taken to court and bailed.

  Realising that he wouldn’t have his freedom for much longer, Rattigan really lost the plot and seemed to have lost the will to live. He was certainly a subdued figure and a shadow of his confident former self.

  On 15 February 2003, at around midday, an unmarked patrol car from Kilmainham Garda Station, driven by Garda Paul Maher and Garda Patrick Smith, came across a suspicious-looking navy Nissan Sunny in Inchicore. Four men were travelling in the Nissan, and the squad car sounded its siren and signalled for the vehicle to pull over, so that the two Gardaí could perform a routine check on the vehicle to make sure that it wasn’t stolen. The Nissan sped off in the direction of the Bluebell Road, and the patrol car radioed for back-up and gave chase. The Nissan drove into a cul-de-sac off the Naas Road. Garda Maher stopped his squad car behind it, as it came to a halt at the end of the road. Without warning, the Nissan reversed at speed and crashed into the Garda car. The impact of the collision was such that substantial damage was caused to the Garda vehicle. Fortunately, the two Gardaí were uninjured. The Nissan then spun around and headed onto La Touche Road at high speed, where it struck the car of an innocent passing motorist. Again the driver was uninjured, although the car was badly damaged.

  Detective Gardaí Brian Hearne and Jim Matthews were driving an unmarked car and they rushed to the area to help their colleagues. Brian Rattigan, who was sitting in the back seat, opened up the window and began firing at the detectives with a pump-action shotgun. A total of five rounds were fired, with three of them hitting the car. They could have easily killed the two plain-clothes detectives, but luckily all the rounds missed their targets. The unmarked car was rammed three times, as Rattigan and his associates desperately tried to get away. The men abandoned the Nissan at the Bernard Curtis flats complex on the Bluebell Road, adjacent to the Grand Canal, and the four men all fled on foot. Detective Gardaí Hearne and Matthews cornered Brian Rattigan. Rattigan pointed his weapon straight at Matthews and cocked it, ready to fire. The detective ordered Rattigan to drop his firearm, but the deranged criminal continued to point it at the officer. Detective Garda Matthews had no option but to fire a warning shot from his official-issue pistol. The sound of the shot seemed to bring Rattigan back into the real world, because he dropped his gun and was overpowered by the two officers and taken into custody. The fact that Brian Rattigan was prepared to shoot at Gardaí showed just how out of control he had become after Joey’s murder. On 18 February, he was charged at Kilmainham District Court with the possession of a Mossberg pump-action shotgun with intent to endanger life, as well as the possession of five shotgun cartridges. Detective Inspector Gabriel O’Gara did not object to bail, but Rattigan did not apply for it and was remanded in custody. Garda intelligence suggests that Rattigan was on his way to carry out an attack on Aidan Gavin when he was arrested. Two of the other three men with Rattigan in the car that night were eighteen-year-old Wayne Zambra from Maryland, a petty criminal who was the driver, and nineteen-year-old Wayne McNally from Loreto Road in Dublin 8, who was regarded as a key Rattigan associate and a violent and dangerous young man. McNally later pleaded guilty to allowing himself to be carried in a stolen vehicle and claimed that he did not know that his friend, Rattigan, had a gun. He told Gardaí he only realised that there was a gun when Rattigan fired shots at the Garda car. He was sentenced to four years. There was insufficient evidence to charge Wayne Zambra, which puzzled many criminals because the three men were detained together.

  In May 2003, Rattigan was jailed for six years for the heroin that was found in his sock at his home. It meant that he could serve as little as four years. This news brought great relief among Gardaí across South Dublin, but there was disappointment that the mandatory ten-year sentencing guideline had been ignored. However, there was a further boost to come. Within two months of Declan Gavin’s murder, a complex Garda investigation file, which ran to six volumes, had been sent to the DPP. Following the submission of follow-up statements from expert witnesses and technical experts, and after other preliminary files had been received, as requested by the DPP, directions were finally given to charge Brian Rattigan with the murder. On 18 September 2003, Detective Sergeant Joe O’Hara and lead investigator Detective Inspector Tom Mulligan charged Brian Rattigan. He was arrested in Mountjoy Prison. He was then transported to Court 46 at Dublin District Court. The court heard that he replied, ‘No, dirty f***ing rat’, when he was charged. He was remanded in custody back to Mountjoy Prison.

  In February 2004, Rattigan pleaded guilty to the two charges in relation to the Bluebell incident the previous year. Rattigan’s Senior Counsel, Brendan Grehan, told Judge Joseph Matthews at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that his client had been the victim of a shooting in March 2002, and that his brother had also been murdered that same year. He told Judge Matthews that he could not give him any more details about the two previous incidents, in case Rattigan was part of ‘a horrible scenario where he is walking around with a gun because he is expecting to have his head blown off’. He also said there may be future legal cases against his client. Grehan said that despite the fact that Brian Rattigan pulled his gun on Garda Matthews, ‘he did not take the ultimate step of pulling the trigger’. He added that it later emerged that Rattigan’s gun was empty when he cocked it, and the court should not speculate as to whether or not he would have fired it, had it been loaded. Brian Rattigan received a four-and-a-half-year sentence in relation to the incident, although the DPP later unsuccessfully appealed the leniency. This was to run consecutively with the six-year term Rattigan had been handed for possession of the €27,000 of heroin the previous year. This meant that Brian Rattigan would be in prison for a minimum of seven years, which was a massive personal blow, as well as a serious body blow to his gang. Although he was off the streets, however, Rattigan’s power was not diminished, and he soon showed that he was able to control his side, even from behind prison bars.

  A young-looking Brian Rattigan with his partner Natasha McEnroe. Rattigan is currently serving a life sentence in Portlaoise Prison.

  Joseph ‘Joey’ Redmond is serving an eight-year jail sentence for shooting at a Garda car. He is one of Brian Rattigan’s closest associates.

  Eddie Redmond was a key member of the Rattigan gang.

  Shay O’Byrne, Sharon Rattigan’s long-term partner. He was shot dead outside their home in Tallaght in March 2009.

  Rattigan’s ‘enforcer’, Anthony Cannon, was shot dead in Ballyfermot in July 2009.

  Eddie Rice was the driver of the car that was ambushed prior to Noel Roche’s murder in November 2005.

  Shane Maloney, a key Rattigan ally, is serving a ten-year jail sentence for possessing €1.2 million worth of heroin.

  Wayne McNally, one of Brian Rattigan’s most senior gang members.

  Wayne Zambra was shot dead on Cameron Street in 2006.

  Hitman-for-hire Gary Bryan is suspected of carrying out at least two murders. He was shot dead in September 2006.

  Graham Whelan was jailed for six years after the Holiday Inn drugs seizure that kicked off the feud. He is now one of the most senior figures in the Thompson gang.

  Ritchie Rattigan, Brian’s older brother.

  David Roche (left) received an eight-year prison sentence for shooting at Gardaí. His brothers John (centre) and Noel (right) were leading members of the Rattigan gang. The pair were murdered within eight months of each other in 2005.

  Pictures of Rattigan from his high-security prison cell, with only his beloved pet budgie, Shrek, for company.

  Abrakebabra at the Crumlin Shopping Centre, the scene of Declan Gavin’s murder in August 2001.

  © Collins.

&
nbsp; Declan Gavin, the original leader of the gang, was murdered by his arch enemy, Brian Rattigan. This marked the beginning of the deadly feud.

  ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson took over from Declan Gavin as the gang’s boss in August 2001.

  © picture Gary Ashe/Irish Daily Star

  A happy-looking ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson on a night out with a lady friend.

  A leading member of the Thompson gang, Aidan Gavin, brother of Declan Gavin.

  Paddy Doyle, the ‘enforcer’ for the Thompson gang, was shot dead in Spain in February 2008.

  ‘Fat’ Freddie’s brother, Ritchie Thompson.

  Darren Geoghegan, the Thompson gang’s money man, was shot dead in Firhouse in November 2005.

  Gavin Byrne was shot dead with Darren Geoghegan in November 2005.

  Liam Brannigan, an associate of Freddie Thompson.

  Trevor Brunton, a ‘minder’ for the Rattigan gang, was jailed after he was caught with a loaded gun at a busy Dublin nightclub.

  Eoin O’Connor, ‘Fat’ Freddie’s cousin, was left with permanent scarring after he was stabbed by Anthony Cannon at a music festival.

  Philip Griffiths was one of the gang members caught in the Holiday Inn raid in 2000.

  David Byrne, a cousin and close associate of Freddie Thompson.

  Craig White was the first person to be found guilty of a feud murder when he was convicted of shooting dead Noel Roche, in November 2005. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

  © Collins

  Eoin O’Connor, ‘Fat’ Freddie’s cousin, was left with permanent scarring after he was stabbed by Anthony Cannon at a music festival.

  Paul Warren was shot dead in Gray’s Pub, Dublin 8, in February 2004.

  Gray’s of Newmarket Square in Dublin 8, the scene of Paul Warren’s murder in February 2004. The pub has since ceased trading.

  A young and happy Eddie McCabe. McCabe was an innocent victim of the gangland feud. He had his eye gouged out in a savage and brutal assault that resulted in his death.

  Ian Kenny was murdered after he fell out with one of the new generation of feuding criminals who is nicknamed ‘Mad Dog’.

  Christopher ‘Git’ McDonagh was shot dead outside his home in Ronanstown in September 2008 after being labelled a ‘rat’.

  Terry Dunleavy owed money to the Thompson gang. He was shot dead in a flats complex in Dublin’s north-inner city in April 2005.

  Detective Superintendent Denis Donegan (now retired) from Crumlin Garda Station was in charge of many of the feud murder investigations.

  © Collins

  Detective Superintendent Brian Sutton, one of the most senior Gardaí involved in investigating the feud.

  © Mark Condren/Sunday Tribune

  Detective Superintendent Gabriel O’Gara. Many of the feud murders happened in his Kevin Street ‘A’ District.

  © Evening Herald

  Detective Inspector John Walsh who has a knowledge of the feud that is second to none.

  © Mark Condren/Sunday Tribune

  Detective Garda Ritchie Kelly, Detective Garda Ken Donnelly and Detective Sergeant Adrian Whitelaw, from Kevin Street Garda Station.

  © Mark Condren/Sunday Tribune

  Brian Rattigan winks defiantly at the camera as he is led from court in December 2009, after he was handed a life sentence for the murder of Declan Gavin.

  © Collins

  6

  Rattigan’s Revenge

  WITH BRIAN RATTIGAN locked up and out of the way, the feud quietened down. After the incident involving Rattigan and the Gardaí in Bluebell in February 2003, the rest of the year in fact passed quietly. Freddie Thompson and his gang were now the dominant players in drug dealing from Crumlin to the south inner city. Rattigan’s men seemed happy with this arrangement; they shipped significant amounts of drugs around Drimnagh and made their money without any bloodshed. Although Thompson was enjoying the feeling of dominating the streets of Crumlin and Drimnagh, he couldn’t actually enjoy the benefits because he was serving a two-year jail sentence after being found guilty of endangerment and assault, after he drove his car at a Garda in Rathmines in August 2002. He was sent to prison in February 2003. So, with himself and Rattigan off the streets, there was a much-needed lull in hostilities.

  The following year, 2004, got off to a bloody start though. It was a sign of things to come – the next two years would be the bloodiest in the history of the feud, with conflict starting again at a pace that was much quicker than before. On 15 January at approximately 1.45 a.m., a number of shots were fired through the window of an apartment in Dublin 8. The apartment was home to a forty-three-year-old woman and her relation, a nineteen-year-old girl who was also Joey Redmond’s girlfriend at the time (Joey Redmond being one of Rattigan’s senior henchmen), but nobody was injured. Garda intelligence suggests that Paddy Doyle was responsible for the shooting. Although he was arrested, there was no real evidence against him, so he was never charged and the incident was not solved.

  On 30 January, the Garda intelligence branch, Crime and Security, received information that there was a threat to the life of Darren Geoghegan. Detective Sergeant John Walsh from Sundrive Road subsequently met with Geoghegan at the station on 3 February. He told Geoghegan the news, before offering him advice on his personal security. Geoghegan laughed when he was told about the threat to his life. He stayed in the station for all of thirty seconds. There was serious bad blood between Brian Rattigan and Darren Geoghegan, and he had been targeted the most out of all the members of Thompson’s gang. Gardaí had no doubt that Brian Rattigan’s side was behind this latest threat.

  On 10 February, Crime and Security again got in touch with DS John Walsh and told him of intelligence that Joey Redmond’s life was now under threat. John Walsh telephoned Redmond and asked to meet him, but he refused, so Walsh had to give him security advice over the phone. However, the following day Joey Redmond’s mother went to Sundrive Road and she was given more advice concerning the safety of her son. Freddie Thompson’s gang were thought to have been behind the threat.

  On the same day that Crime and Security got in touch about Joey Redmond they also relayed information that Michael Frazer’s life was in danger. Michael Frazer, who was twenty-nine and from Knocknarea Avenue in Drimnagh, had been on the periphery of the Rattigan and Gavin gang when it had just formed. He was no longer associating with either side at this stage, although he had been close to Declan Gavin. The day after Gardaí received the warning from Crime and Security, Frazer called to Sundrive Road station and was given security advice from DI Brian Sutton. He refused to acknowledge the fact that he was involved with any criminal group and expressed surprise that anybody would want to hurt him. However, when he was pressed further he said that if anything were to happen to him, it was because of the Drimnagh feud and his former friendships with people like Brian Rattigan and Freddie Thompson. The intelligence passed on by Crime and Security was spot on. Just four days after he was given security advice, armed, masked men fired three shots outside Frazer’s home, and shouted, ‘Tell Mickey he’s gonna get it.’ Gardaí could never fully determine who was responsible, but Shay O’Byrne, Sharon Rattigan’s partner, was the prime suspect.

  Ever since Joey Rattigan had been murdered, Paul Warren was a marked man and knew that if any of Brian Rattigan’s gang saw him alone, he would be vulnerable. However, he had managed to avoid bumping into any of the rival gangsters in the eighteen months since he had set up Joey Rattigan to be murdered. On the morning of 25 February 2004, the twenty-four-year-old got up out of bed as normal, having no reason to suspect that this would be the day when fate finally caught up with him. He went to work at Hennessy Glass, on the Lower Kimmage Road, at about 8.20 a.m. He had worked as a glazier for the company for the previous two years. He liked his job and the people he worked with. He went to do a job in the south inner city at about 1.15 p.m. He decided to go to Gray’s pub, on Newmarket Square, for a pint and a game of pool. Warren knew Gray’s as the Red Lion, and before th
at as Bonnie and Clyde’s. He grew up not far away in St Teresa’s Gardens. He was a regular in the pub, and was well known there. Warren had had an accident a few weeks previously, when a pane of glass had fallen on his head, resulting in stitches. He had an appointment to go to St James’s Hospital to get the stitches removed, but he was enjoying the few pints and decided to skip it. His boss had already said it was OK to have the rest of the afternoon off. Warren was also supposed to meet with his probation officer that afternoon, but again decided to give it a miss, even though it meant that he could get in trouble if the probation officer decided to take things further. He spent the afternoon playing pool with random customers. At about 7.00 p.m., a friend of his called to Gray’s and asked Warren if he would go with him to Crumlin with another mate to try to sort out a dispute that he was having. Warren was always willing to do a pal a turn, so the three men drove to Crumlin, looking for the rival group. There was no sign of the group, so they went back to Gray’s to continue drinking. Champions League football was on the telly, and the group was in the mood for a few more games of pool.

  Things had been going well for Warren of late. He’d managed to put the events of the last eighteen months behind him. He was trying to get on with life as normal. Warren was originally from Fatima Mansions but moved with his parents to St Teresa’s Gardens when he was a young lad, along with his four sisters and brother. He had only recently moved in with his girlfriend and they were renting a house together in Clondalkin. He had been in trouble with the police on and off since he was young. He had managed to chalk up twenty-three convictions in his twenty-four years – twenty of those were for road traffic offences, and the other three for the simple possession of drugs. He had never served a lengthy jail sentence, and was regarded as a bit of a messer, and certainly not a serious criminal. He was way out of his depth getting involved in the Joey Rattigan murder. No matter how smoothly things were going at that time, being blamed for setting a man up to be killed was surely never far from his mind.