Cocaine Wars

by Mick McCaffrey

  When Brendan Grehan took to his feet to cross-examine the Garda, he said that he accepted that Kane made statements in April 2006 and May 2008, in which he said he had identified the thumb print as belonging to Craig White, but Grehan said that he was of the view that the other three prints on the bag did not reach the required standard for presentation as evidence in court. The detective replied that he was never in any doubt that the finger marks were made by White. He then said that the usual standard for print evidence to be accepted in court is if there was a minimum twelve-point match. Detective Garda Kane agreed with Brendan Grehan that he had heard about the case in which the FBI had wrongly identified a man as a suspect in the Madrid bombings based on incorrect fingerprint analysis. The Garda said that he has heard that an independent expert in that case who had agreed with the FBI’s inaccurate findings may have been influenced by a database search that came back with a name that had been flagged as being linked to terrorism. Ray Kane stated that he had searched the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) using a thumbprint that had been found on the paper bag found in the car, and that Craig White’s name had come back as a match. He added that no prints had been found from the Glock in the paper bag, and White’s prints were not found anywhere in or on the Peugeot, apart from the bag. Other unidentified prints were found. Detective Garda Kane agreed that while he was of the opinion that Craig White had handled the bag, he could not tell when he had touched it. He accepted that prints could persist for years in the right sort of conditions and also accepted that the presence of prints on the bag did not necessarily mean that White had put the gun into it. Nor could he definitively say that White had put the bag into the car and could not rule out the possibility that other people, maybe people who wore gloves, had handled the paper bag.

  The rest of the trial was straightforward and uneventful. Craig White did not offer a defence for himself. When the jury was sent out to deliberate on 29 July, Gardaí were quietly confident of getting a conviction, but most agreed that the cross-examination on the fingerprint evidence could have thrown up reasonable doubt. In any event, the jury of seven men and five women took little more than half an hour to convict Craig White of Noel Roche’s murder. It was a major victory for the Gardaí who had investigated the murder, and proved that gangland criminals could not simply get away with murder and would be held accountable for their actions. Still, the swiftness with which the jury came back with their decision shocked everybody who had attended the court case. The worry was that it would give White grounds for appealing the decision down the line. Mr Justice Birmingham imposed a mandatory life sentence for the crime, which he said that all sides in the case had agreed was an ‘assassination’ and a ‘gangland hit’. He thanked the jury for presiding over what he described as a ‘sensitive trial’. It was indeed sensitive, and the jury roll call had to be held in private each morning, rather than the usual procedure of taking place in open court, because of fears that jury members could be tampered with. Craig White has also been linked to the murder of innocent Latvian mother-of-two, Baiba Saulite, who was shot dead outside her home in Swords in November 2006. Detectives believe that it was White who knocked at Baiba’s door before she was shot, pretending to be a pizza delivery man. The unsuspecting Latvian turned him away, saying she did not order a pizza. In reality the man was making sure she was at home. A few minutes later, a gunman shot her dead as she smoked a cigarette outside her door. White is believed to have driven the getaway car. White had links to the gang run by Martin ‘Marlo’ Hyland, and it was Hyland who set up the murder. Saulite’s estranged husband, Lebanese national Hassan Hassan, is suspected of organising the hit because of a custody dispute. In January 2010, the DPP decided that there was not enough evidence to charge Hassan Hassan in relation to Saulite’s murder, but the investigation remains open, and Gardaí have not ruled out the possibility that White could face charges in the future in relation to the murder, but as time goes by this looks increasingly unlikely.

  Although Craig White will spend a long time in jail, he did gain respect in criminal circles for keeping his mouth shut and not trying to implicate Paddy Doyle in the slaying, which he could easily have done. Paddy Doyle’s DNA was also found at the scene, and if he had returned to Ireland prior to his murder, he would have been arrested and charged with Noel Roche’s murder. Nevertheless, White’s conviction was a very welcome development.

  During the trial of Craig White, Paddy Doyle’s father broke his silence on his son’s murder and involvement in the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud, when he gave an interview to Niall Donald of the Irish Daily Star Sunday. Donal Doyle claimed that Paddy had been trying to turn his life around and give up his life of crime when he was murdered. ‘He wished he could start his life over, that’s the hardest thing.’ Donal Doyle admitted his lad was ‘no saint’ but was a ‘brilliant’ dad who wanted to turn his life around. ‘Patrick told me he wished he could start his life again and do it all differently. He said, “I’d give anything to be able to go out, do a week’s work and come home and have my dinner.” But he had got in too deep and didn’t know how to get out.’ Donal Doyle was a staunch anti-drugs campaigner and had fallen out with his son because of his involvement in crime and drug dealing. However, they made up shortly before he died. ‘We had cut our ties with Paddy and we hadn’t spoken for six years. But following a family illness, he got a message to me apologising for the past and we both picked up the phone. I hadn’t spoken to him in a long time and it seemed we were able to open up to each other a lot more. He told me he felt, by not being here, he had let his two brothers down because he wasn’t around for them. Paddy had his wild years, like a lot of young men, and now he was sitting back and taking stock. In October, I visited him in Spain and we talked about getting a bit of stability into his life and start moving away from these people he had classed as friends. Five months later he was dead.’

  Donal Doyle also spoke about how Darren Geoghegan’s grandfather had contacted him to tell him that he didn’t believe that Doyle was responsible for Geoghegan’s murder. ‘Darren was raised by his grandfather, and after Patrick was killed they came over and told us how much they loved our son – the two of them were very close friends. They told us they had never dreamed even for a second that Patrick was involved in Darren’s death. We were gobsmacked. We have kept in touch ever since. They are lovely people and are going through hell just like us.’

  Despite his involvement in crime, Donal Doyle said that his son was a good father. ‘He was always very protective of his family and he was a brilliant father to his kids. Patrick was a very thoughtful person; I think that was part of his problem – people were able to zone in on him. He was no saint; he could be as hard as nails, but, at the same time, he had a very soft side to him.’

  Mr Doyle believes that his son’s involvement in drugs has been exaggerated even though he has previous convictions for drugs offences and masterminded the smuggling of tens of millions of euro worth of drugs from Spain into Ireland.

  ‘Patrick was made out to be a major drug importer, but his only conviction for drugs was when he was caught with five wraps of speed when he was seventeen. The fact is the Spanish police had no intelligence files on Paddy; they knew nothing about him being a drug importer. He is also made out to be a hit man and an enforcer, but it is all supposition. The Gardaí might believe this but they never arrested him for it.’

  Doyle says that he learned about his son’s death from the television and says the Gardaí never informed him. There are protocols to go through before Gardaí are able to inform relations about the deaths of Irish nationals abroad, but Doyle is nonetheless unhappy at how his family was treated. ‘I was speaking to Patrick an hour before he was killed and we just talked about his son, just normal family talk. We got all our news from the television, but we were never officially informed by the Gardaí. We thought until we get a knock on the door we don’t know for sure. The reports said there were three people in the jeep after all. We s
tayed up all night waiting for someone to get in touch with us. The next morning I phoned up the Department of Foreign Affairs and told them I had been informed by the media that my son was killed in Spain. I said I was a taxpayer, my wife is a taxpayer, we have no criminal convictions and we are entitled to courtesy. Eventually, later that day, after another phone call to the Department of Foreign Affairs, we finally got a call from Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station.’

  During this interview, which gave a fascinating insight into how the families of criminals are affected by their crimes, Donal Doyle concluded by talking about the support he had received from the community where he lives in the north inner city.

  ‘The odd person would avoid you, mightn’t catch your eye, but on the whole, I can’t say enough about the support we have received. People know what we have been through and what we’ve tried to do over the years. They aren’t going to judge us over what has been written about Patrick in a few articles. You have to take what consolation you can. We made our peace with Patrick and he gave us beautiful grandchildren.’

  Conclusion

  BY THE BEGINNING OF 2010, the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud had settled down. It appeared that the worst of it was over, but as former Justice Minister Michael McDowell found out to his cost with his ‘the sting of the dying wasp’ comment, predictions can often come back to haunt you. There are several reasons why the tension has subsided, but the most important factor has arguably been the introduction of amended legislation to the Criminal Justice Bill in July 2009. Under the new laws people suspected of being members of criminal gangs can be arrested and tried in the non-jury Special Criminal Court. In this court a Chief Superintendent’s belief that the suspect is a member of a gang is enough to see the person convicted. This sent shockwaves through gangs around the country, which led to senior members fleeing abroad to places like the Netherlands and Spain. The Thompson and Rattigan gang members were no different – the main figures are almost permanently out of the country. At the end of 2010, a handful of people have been charged under the new legislation but no cases have yet gone to trial. Gardaí in Crumlin immediately saw the potential in the new laws and have opened up files on Freddie Thompson and Graham Whelan with a view to charging them with directing a criminal organisation and bringing them before the non-jury court.

  The very threat of arrest on sight has proven to be enough to keep criminals on their toes and on the run. This development has obviously been warmly welcomed on the streets of Crumlin and Drimnagh. Ironically, Rattigan gang members have also ended up in Puerto Banus alongside the Thompson hoods, and the two factions regularly bump into each other. At the beginning of 2010 the gangs lived side by side in Spain in relative harmony. Perhaps they didn’t see the point of feuding in the sun and realised that the death and destruction was pointless and that sixteen young lives had been lost in vain. Whatever the reason, it looked like the criminals had permanently ceased hostilities and were instead concentrating on making large sums of money by organising drugs shipments to Ireland. Things didn’t turn out the way they had planned though. Although the majority of product is still sourced from Spain, things have changed since Paddy Doyle’s murder. The negative publicity that the Spanish authorities received in the aftermath of Doyle’s murder led to a severe crackdown on foreign drug barons, with local police and Europol redoubling their efforts to end their cushy lifestyles. This has worked and drug seizures in Ireland in 2009 were significantly up, with large seizures occurring on an almost weekly basis. The Spanish police received international plaudits for taking on the drug barons but they were only getting started.

  On 25 May 2010, hundreds of Spanish police launched a pre-dawn operation aimed at ending the activities of the Irish and British godfathers who were operating from Puerto Banus. By lunchtime thirty-four people in Spain, Ireland and the UK had been detained as part of the massive international operation. Ten Irish nationals were behind bars in Puerto Banus, including the ‘Daper Don’, Christy Kinihan, his two sons and his right hand man, John ‘the Colonel’ Cunningham. The arrests were the culmination of Operation Shovel, a two-year investigation that involved police forces across Europe. Christy Kinihan and his cohorts were thrown into Spanish jails while the investigations were completed, but it was clear that the Spanish police had done their homework and they raided dozens of businesses that they suspected were laundering the gangs’ money. The Spanish investigators estimate that Kinihan had amassed over €150 million in property assets, all of which were frozen by the courts. Kinihan’s sons and John Cunningham were given bail in the weeks and months after their arrest and Kinihan himself was finally released on bail in November 2010. He is nervously awaiting his trial date, his empire in tatters. But not everybody that the Spaniards wanted to quiz was lifted that morning. An arrest warrant had been obtained for one Frederick ‘Fat Freddie’ Thompson, but Freddie had left Spain just two days before the raids, leading to speculation that he had been tipped off about the impending raids.

  The Spanish crackdown was a massive blow to Freddie and his gang. The outstanding warrant means that he can never safely return to Spain. To make matters worse, an international arrest warrant was also issued, which means that he no longer has the option of returning to Dublin and running his drugs business from here. Since that day in May 2010, Thompson has lived the life of a nomad, moving between Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands but spending the majority of his time in Birmingham. He cannot spend too much time in any one place in case local police find him and take him away in handcuffs.

  The importation of drugs from the Spanish Costas ended following the arrests under Operation Shovel. By May 2010, Gardaí estimated that as many as seventy Irish criminals were based in Spain full time. It is known that Freddie and six of his close associates called Spain home but most criminals have now abandoned Peurto Banus because there is little point in living there now that it is no longer safe to operate from. The Spanish arrests have resulted in a drugs drought in Ireland. But the recession has meant that demand for cocaine among the middle-classes has practically vanished, so even without the Spanish crackdown there would have been much less money to be made from drug dealing. Freddie Thompson is now broke and has taken to ordering his remaining henchmen in Dublin to call in old drug debts so that he can have access to cash. However, his reputation is not what it once was, and smaller dealers are reluctant to hand over any money to a gangster whose best days are clearly behind him. To date nobody has been murdered or seriously injured as a result of refusing to settle debts. It is unclear what the future holds for Freddie but it does not look bright.

  Traditionally, the Crumlin/Drimnagh feud violence has been orchestrated by just a handful of individuals. Anthony Cannon’s death and Wayne McNally’s jail sentence were real turning points because two of the most feared and violent members of the Rattigan gang were out of action permanently. With them out of the picture, there wasn’t really anybody prepared to step up to the plate and replace them in doing any violent dirty work. If victory can be claimed by either side, then there is no doubt that the Thompson faction has come out of the hostilities the healthier. But the victory is a hollow one after the devastating Spanish crackdown.

  Both gangs still manage to smuggle drugs into the country, but the seizures have really hit them in the pocket, and their profit margins have diminished substantially. As a result, the drugs business at the moment is not as lucrative as it was a few years ago. Although Brian Rattigan’s gang has effectively disintegrated, except for a handful of hard-core youngsters, it was remarkable that he maintained his power base for so long. Rattigan has now been in prison for nearly nine years but still managed to lead a mini-army from behind bars. It is a testament to his sheer force of character that he has brought so many people with him for such a long period of time. In December 2009, Brian Rattigan was finally convicted of the murder of Declan Gavin following a second trial. He was handed a mandatory life sentence, which means that it will be at least 2025 before he is likely to be rel
eased. It is inconceivable that, when he is eventually freed, Rattigan will be allowed to live for long. By the time he breathes air as a free man, his gang will have moved on. With Rattigan’s senior people either dead or permanently out of the picture, the next generation will take over and seize control of his territory. They have little or no loyalty to Rattigan because they were so young when he was arrested. If he tries to reassert control or steps on their toes, he will be taken out, a bit like Thompson or Rattigan would take out John Gilligan when he is finally freed. That is just the way it works in the dog-eat-dog world of gangland. If you are out of sight, you are out of mind, and when you re-emerge, it does not always go down well.