Elusive: Nicola Tallant confronts a visibly shaken Goerge Mitchell

This is the moment when Ireland’s elusive ‘Godfather of Crime’ realised the Sunday World had finally caught up with him after 20 years in hiding.

George ‘the Penguin’ Mitchell hasn’t been snapped in more than two decades and the last thing he expected as he ambled up the street of a sleepy German village was to be confronted by our team.

The 65-year-old has changed his appearance drastically, but the unmistakable waddle that earned him his nickname from one-time pal John Traynor is still hard to miss.

We had been watching him for days at his new base in the Mosel Valley in the south of Germany, where he has recently settled after leaving Spain.

He rarely comes out, opting instead to hide away in the luxury apartment he has rented on the banks of the Mosel river. When he does, he is collected by his friend Herman Xennt, a Dutch national with a shady past.

They meet at various restaurants and coffee shops in the idyllic town of Traben Trarbach, and mingle with the tourists who flock here. 

For Mitchell, it’s just another day of anonymity in this little valley, far from the huge drug markets of Europe which have made him a very, very wealthy man.

But his undercover life as businessman ‘Mr George Green’ is about to be shattered – and for the first time in years the nation will see the face of the man who has grown fat and rich on the misery of thousands.

“George, can I have a word with you?” I ask as he makes his way up the street, his vast frame swaying from side to side. “How are you doing?”

Initially he is confused. 

“I’m grand thanks,” he says, his Dublin accent still pronounced (see video below). 

He looks again. He glances under my baseball cap. His eyes darken, his expression changes and he almost spits: “F**k off.” 

He takes out his mobile phone and barks orders: “Let them know exactly what is going on here.”

I follow him up the street. 

“We haven’t seen you in a long time. Have you settled in here?” I ask him. He strides on.

“The last time we heard from you, you said you were a legitimate businessman. Is that the case?” He ignores me again.

“Gardaí and other police forces believe you to be an international drug trafficker. Do you have anything to say?”

He keeps his calm and walks purposely on, but the look in his eyes says it all – his sheer hatred and contempt for the Sunday World and all it represents is evident.

Only weeks ago, this newspaper was hailed for its coverage of organised crime when the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned a €900,000 defamation award to Sligo drug dealer Martin McDonagh.

The judgement recognised that society needs to protect and encourage the coverage of crime – something the Sunday World has led the way in since it was founded in 1973.

Mitchell has been ranked as one of the top-20 drug traffickers in Europe and is currently under investigation by a number of jurisdictions for his involvement in heroin, cannabis and ecstasy trafficking, as well as fraud and money laundering.

For years we have followed his trail to Amsterdam in Holland, Malaga in Spain, Marrakesh in Morocco and to Kusadasi in Turkey – but the slippery Godfather managed to evade us.

When we finally find him he doesn’t quite see us as old friends. But then we were the first paper to  name him as a major player in the drugs trade, and as the man who tried to organise the murder of CAB officer Barry Galvin.

For the first time, the Sunday World details how Mitchell has hidden in plain sight while trying to legitimise his dirty money.

For the past 10 years, the Penguin has remained on the move, often living for months out of hotel rooms. Intelligence relating to Mitchell was passed on to police in Holland last year.

The Dutch authorities informed their Spanish counterparts that his base was in Malaga, where he was living in an ordinary beach-front apartment with his partner and former secretary Khadija Bouchiba.

There, she had registered a property sales and rental company, while he travelled up and down to Holland and Germany.

Gardaí were informed of his whereabouts and a surveillance operation was mounted on the property where Mitchell and his partner, a Dutch-Moroccan grandmother, lived a low-key existence.

The couple had met in Holland, where Mitchell lived for almost a decade after fleeing Ireland following the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin and the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau.

In 1998, in his last serious brush with the law, he was caught unloading IR£5million worth of stolen computer equipment from an Irish truck on the outskirts of Amsterdam. 

He claimed he was involved in an “import-export company” and insisted he was a legitimate businessman. However, he was jailed for a year.

After his release, police believe he spread his tentacles across Europe – organising drug shipments from Colombian drug cartels, the Russian Mafia, Afghanistan’s heroin producers through Turkish agents, along with major shipments of firearms.

At that point, his daughter Rachel and her partner Derek ‘Maradona’ Dunne were living in Amsterdam, where he specialised in supplying heroin to Dublin and England. In 2000, Dunne was shot while Rachel and their children looked on.

Around the same time, Mitchell became a close friend of Herman Xennt. The businessman had purchased an old cold-war bunker where he had set up ‘Cyberbunker’ – a web domain company he was hoping to develop.

In 2002, when there was a fire at the premises an Ecstasy-making factory was discovered in an underground area.Xennt denied it had anything to do with him. Meanwhile Mitchell, later moved out of Holland and kept an even lower profile than ever.

Until now...

The area was being treated as a crime scene out of caution

A two-year-old missing girl has been found miles away from her Massachusetts home sitting naked by the side of a road with her head shaved.

Authorities said the toddler had been reported missing from her Hamilton home on Friday morning. An Amber Alert was about to be issued when the girl was located.

Witnesses who found the toddler say she was found alone hours later in Rowley, on the border of Ipswich, about seven miles from Hamilton. She was taken to Boston Children's Hospital.

A Massachusetts State Police spokesman said the area was being treated as a crime scene out of caution.

Hamilton police chief Russell Stevens said the case was like a "jigsaw puzzle" and that "pieces are missing".

John Leslie

Former Blue Peter host John Leslie has been suspended from his job on Radio Forth while police investigate claims he sexually assaulted a 22-year-old woman.

Edinburgh Police were seen removing bags of evidence from 50-year-old Leslie’s home in the Scottish capital on Saturday.

It is understood that Leslie, who was cleared of two sexual assaults in 2003, has been suspended from his job as a Radio Forth DJ while police investigate the allegation,

The assault is alleged to have taken place following an event at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on Thursday evening where guests included the band Travis.

Images on the radio station’s website show Leslie posing with The Voice winner Stevie McCrorie who he presented with an award for best performance.

The allegation is believed to have happened after the event, when many guests were attending an after-party at nightclub Lulu’s.

A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “Police in Edinburgh are investigating a report of a sexual assault of a 22-year-old woman between the evening of Thursday November 19 and the morning of Friday November 20 in Edinburgh. Inquiries are ongoing.”

Detectives were seen removing bags from Leslie’s £500,000 bungalow in the Morningside area of the Edinburgh.

Leslie, who has not been charged with any offence, returned to his home at around 10pm on Saturday night and declined to comment about the allegations.

Leslie was a prominent face on British television in the 1990s, presenting among others, Blue Peter and Wheel of Fortune.

However he was dropped from his £200,000-a-year job, co-hosting This Morning with Fern Britten, after an image of him apparently snorting cocaine appeared in the News of the World.

Leslie was also publically accused of sexually assaulting Ulrika Jonsson by Channel 5, an allegation he has always vehemently denied and one which she has never confirmed.

In 2003, he was accused of two counts of indecently assaulting a 23-year-old actress in 1997. He was cleared of all charges. He was also accused of rape in 2008, but cleared of the allegation.

Via Independent.ie

A 'signal device' used by criminal gangs (Pic via An Garda Siochana)

A 'signal device' used by criminal gangs (Pic via An Garda Siochana)

The Gardai have released images of 'signal devices' that could be used in burglary after two men were arrested in connection with burglary related offences yesterday

Under Operation Thor two men, aged 28 and 30, were stopped in a car in Dublin's north inner city yesterday afternoon.

A search of the car revealed a number of implements which may be used in the course of or in connection with theft or burglary.

The two men were arrested and are currently detained at Store Street Garda Station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.
 
A further, planned, search of premises in Dublin 6 and Dublin 8 recovered a number of sophisticated articles which again may be used to assist in the course of or in connection with theft and burglary.

The Gardai also released images of some of the items recovered, which they described as 'signal devices that are used by criminal groups'.

These devices can be used to block or intercept radio signals from house or car alarms.

Plots: Kieran, Brian, Jonathan and Ray at Philip's funeral

A LIMERICK crime gang’s plan to get back in business has been dealt a major blow after a series of Garda raids.

Members of the Collopy clan recently released from jail had planned a comeback in the city’s underworld.

But their plans suffered a severe setback after a dozen raids by Gardaí resulted in drugs and cash being seized.

They suffered a significant blow when Philip Collopy (pictured below) accidentally shot himself in 2009 while showing off with a gun in a Limerick house. 

He was the gang’s most feared enforcer and a gun-nut who built up a collection of weapons – but took the location of the secret stash to the grave.

His death and the loss of guns seriously weakened the crime family, who were then hit by a series of successful prosecutions.

The family patriarch, Jack, was buried last month.

Officers from several units, backed up by armed colleagues searched several locations last week in a planned operation. 

Houses, derelict properties and wasteland in the north side of city was searched by the teams.

The haul included cannabis resin, cocaine and sedative tablets, worth an estimated €100,000 along with €13,000 in cash. 

Shotgun cartridges were also found at one of the locations.

The Collopys have played a notorious role in the city’s underworld and were aligned the Keane faction.

Three of the brothers, Brian, Kieran (pictured above) and Damien, were jailed after their bid to extort cash from Willie Moran backfired.

Kieran and Damien were prosecuted for their campaign of intimidation and then Brian was jailed for trying to force Moran to withdraw his statements to the Gardaí.

Brian and Kieran had been considered key players in Limerick’s drugs underworld and have been targeted by the rival McCarthy-Dundons in the past.

Brian’s son, Kenneth ‘slash-hook’ Collopy, is currently serving a life sentence in Limerick Prison for murder.

Cyber scheme: Herman Xennt and Mitchell in Germany

Gerard Hopkins

Crime godfather George ‘the Penguin’ Mitchell keeps a tight net of close associates who he believes has shielded him from the law for decades.

But today we can uncover the lieutenants who have made Mitchell an international success story and one of the top 20 drug dealers in Europe. 

In Spain, Holland, Germany, the UK and Ireland, Mitchell has key associates who make sure his drugs empire runs smoothly and that he can wash as much money as he can through legitimate business.

Mitchell has few friends and even fewer associates – but those close to him are fiercely loyal.

At home in Ireland he entrusts his entire operation to one of his oldest friends and a man  with whom he once served five years in prison.

Gerard Hopkins and Mitchell cut their teeth together in armed robberies. 

In 1986 they were caught stealing a truck-load of cattle drench. They locked the driver into a refrigerated lorry, almost freezing him to death. They each received a five year prison term.

Like Mitchell, Hopkins lives a low-key existence, driving battered-up old cars and opts not to splash his cash, although it is suspected he has become very rich from his partnership with the Penguin.

Hopkins has a complex love life. His first wife left him while he was in prison and when he got out he cast his eye on street trader Rose Herron, with whom he had twins.

However, as their relationship was just beginning to flourish, another woman caught his eye – this time the wife of Rose’s brother.

After she left her husband for Hopkins, Lorraine Hand reverted to her maiden name and the couple now live in the Cabra area of Dublin.

Hopkins, who paid a hefty six-figure sum to the CAB, keeps no properties in his own name, but he travels extensively and is believed to own real estate in Turkey where he spends a lot of time. He meets the Penguin regularly and the pair often hook up in Holland or under the pretence of family holidays in the Canaries or Turkey.

Mitchell’s brother Paddy (pictured below) has for a long time been the mobster’s eyes and ears in Ireland and his partner in crime. 

A home-bird, Paddy has never left Dublin for anything more than a few years and has never been able to settle on the Continent. He was jailed for two years for failing to make tax returns worth more than €1million and is believed to now live in south Dublin. 

CAB target Stephen Kearney is another life-long friend and comrade of the Penguin, but in recent years cops believe he tried to go it alone and deal with the Colombian cartels himself. 

In June 2012 a massive shipment he was suspected of organising was nabbed after Gardaí were tipped off to his activities.

Kearney managed to escape the net when the  €29m coke deal went wrong – but his young protégé, Gareth Hopkins, a Trinity graduate and no relation to Gerard, was nabbed.

He was jailed for 15 years but  police suspect that Kearney was the mastermind of the plan.

Despite the fact that he was one of Mitchell’s main men in Ireland since the 1990s, it is understood that the pair have had little contact over the past few years. Kearney (pictured below) is currently facing eviction after CAB ordered him out of his home in Ratoath, Co. Meath.

In Holland, Robbie Murphy is Mitchell’s closest confidante and the man who Dutch police say is looking after all his drug interests. 

He hasn’t been on the Garda radar for almost 20 years, but surveillance operations have identified him in Amsterdam, where he has a large network of well-known criminal associates.

Murphy is a well-known drug trafficker and convicted armed robber from Artane, Dublin.

He was once known as ‘the Technician’ and became a major target of anti-drugs groups in the ‘90s when he and close pals Derek ‘Maradona’ Dunne and Thomas ‘the Boxer’ Mullen, took over north Dublin’s heroin and cocaine trade.

Murphy fled the country in 1996. He was so trusted by ‘the Penguin’ that during  a probe the CAB discovered that Murphy held money in an account for Mitchell in the name of a relative.

Mitchell is believed to meet with Murphy during his regular visits with his daughter Rachel in Holland.

In Spain, Mitchell has tightened his security due to the arrest and jailing of a number of his key associates. 

He is now believed to deal exclusively with a Colombian cartel boss who organises shipments of cocaine, heroin and cannabis for him. Mitchell never touches his stocks and sells on the drugs through his well-established network of contacts between Europe, the UK and Ireland.

Just two years ago Thomas ‘the Boxer’ Mullen (pictured above), who has remained in close contact with Mitchell, was arrested in Spain with €2m in cash and a large haul of drugs.

The Sunday World understands he is in prison awaiting trial. The former boxing champ was jailed for 18 years in the UK in 1998, but immediately moved out to the Costa on his release. 

It is understood he had re-ignited his relationship with his former supplier Mitchell before he was nabbed with the stash.

The arrest followed a high-profile sting on Alan Buckley (pictured below) in 2012.

Cork’s ‘Mr Big’, whose history with the Penguin dates back to the pair attempting to establish Ireland’s first ecstasy lab, was arrested when a yacht was boarded and €6m worth of cannabis resin was found.

In the UK, Mitchell has one key drug associate based in London. His activities are believed to have been under surveillance for six months.

Mitchell is believed to have fled Spain over the summer after he was tipped off that his entire network was under surveillance. 

He relocated to Germany where the Sunday World tracked him down last week. There he meets daily with long-time friend and business associate Herman Xennt. 

Xennt has no known links to organised crime, but has a controversial past in the cyber business.

He owns an underground bunker above the village of Traben Trarbach where Mitchell has an apartment.

It is understood the pair want to develop a communications system from the bunker which would be uncompromised by hacking or bugging equipment.

Some of the black market cigarettes available on Irish streets

Illegal counterfeit tobacco and smuggled cigarettes are funding ISIS and their brutal terror campaign.

The extremists are making as much as $1million a day, according to the United Nations.

And a French think tank, Terrorism Analysis Centre, claims that as much as 20 per cent of ISIS funding comes from cigarette smuggling and petty criminal activity in Europe.

They wouldn’t be the first terror group to use tobacco smuggling as a way to raise cash to pay guns, bombs and bullets.

The infamous Al-Qaeda chief in north Africa, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was also known as Mr Marlboro thanks to his smuggling operation.

His network was also used to traffic people oil and drugs.

Some of the illegal cigarettes that end up sold in Ireland will have been smuggled from the east by Chechen gangs who are sympathetic to ISIS, according to reports.

Ireland’s home-grown terror groups, including former IRA men, have been major players in the illegal trade in Ireland.

Between 1999 and 2004, the IRA are estimated to have raised €100million from tobacco smuggling.

Investigator and former senior Garda Kevin O’Donohue said that it is estimated that up to one in four cigarettes smoked in Ireland may have been smuggled.

“It’s hard to put a figure on what it’s worth in Ireland, but it’s a substantial sum of money, somewhere between €120m to €230m a year,” he told the Sunday World.

Retailers have claimed that as many as one billion illegal cigarettes are smoked in Ireland every year at a huge cost to the taxpayer.

The Terrorism Analysis Centre estimates that the global trade costs governments up to €60billion a year in lost tax revenue.

A big chunk of this cash goes to terror groups including ISIS, as well as other extremists such as Al Qaeda and Al-Nusra, which is based in Syria.

Other groups considered to be terror organisations, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, have been found to be running fundraising smuggling operations in both 
Europe and the United States.

Compared to drug smuggling, the risks for those involved when they get caught are much lower and the trade is sometimes not a priority for law enforcement agencies.

Some of the extremists involved in the recent Paris attacks by ISIS are known to have been involved in the trade in the city’s huge open-air markets.

Similarly, one of the Charlie Hebdo attackers last January also had a criminal record and was involved in the illicit cigarette trade.

The illegal tobacco trade in France is one of the biggest in Europe.

Bernie Stokes

SHE is the psychic who sparked outrage by telling a woman with cancer not to have chemotherapy, but Bernie Stokes was still giving out medical diagnoses at her latest gig on Friday.

Under-fire Bernie (34), describes herself as one of Ireland’s “leading clairvoyants” who is able to connect with the “spirit world”. 

However, the mum-of-five failed to foresee the outrage that would be caused this week by the ‘advice’ she gave to a cancer sufferer.

The Tallaght native, who is a cousin of UFC fighter Conor McGregor, was slated on the national airwaves and social media this week for her dodgy medical advice. 

The controversy was sparked after a caller to Joe Duffy’s Liveline programme told how the medium advised her mother not to let “chemo enter the body” after she received a “psychic message”. 

Despite being “really upset” after the row, Bernie entertained more than 150 people in Navan with her “gift”.

The Sunday World paid €10 to attend her show in the Ardboyne Hotel on Friday night and witnessed the psychic talking to the other side. Although apologising for the upset she caused, we listened to Bernie making extraordinary medical claims.

“I’m not a doctor,” Bernie told the audience, before going on to make a medical diagnosis. 

The psychic told one woman the “spirits felt” she had lumps on her breasts. The audience member confirmed she had found lumps and was waiting on the results of tests. 

While saying the woman should get double-checked by doctors, Bernie believed it was nothing to worry about because the “other side” felt it was only cysts.

We witnessed other participants becoming really upset – some even breaking down in tears – with the psychic’s reading. Bernie even stopped the show at one point to conduct readings “off-mic” with emotional individuals. 

However, she defended herself, telling the audience she must “tell the truth” and the message is “coming though her” from the spirit world. 

The psychic also amazed the audience when she correctly predicted how a deceased man was remembered in the grounds of Manchester United. 

When approached by the Sunday World after the show, Bernie agreed to talk to us on the phone the next morning. 

However, Bernie did not respond to calls made on Saturday. 

The Ploughman venue in Dublin cancelled her show scheduled for this Wednesday after reading “comments on a previous show elsewhere”. 

Last week, one woman told RTE’s Liveline that the psychic had advised her relative to ignore medical advice and refuse chemotherapy.

However, Bernie denied ever mentioning the issue of chemotherapy or treatment to the woman’s family.

“I want to apologise. I am devastated for the family that I got her diagnosis wrong,” she told RTE presenter Joe Duffy.

Bernie’s husband of 13 years defended the psychic when confronted by the Sunday World at their home in Mullingar. 

James Pepper said there is “only so much” backlash they can take and how their children have been troubled in school.

“They are getting it off people in school now. People are literally delusional. They don’t know the good work she has done to help people,” said James. 

“The past four days has taken a big strain on us. To make out that she’s such a bad person isn’t right. She’s in bits, we all are. 

“People putting messages on Facebook – they don’t know her as a person. They were saying she takes €2,000 a show… that’s not the case. Some shows you might get 70 people and then after Bernie pays everybody else she gets nothing. She’s made out to be some sort of money grabber… that’s not the case.” 

Bernie has over 28,000 fans on Facebook and has a waiting list for private readings – which costs €70. She discovered she had a “gift” when she was just five-years-old and has travelled the country with her shows. 

James believes the controversy was not warranted because his wife has helped thousands of people.

“It was all blown out of proportion. She already apologised to the family for what she said. There’s not much more she can do now. She’s a genuine person.

“The raffle that Bernie does at her shows goes to charity, she doesn’t get it.

“She gets paid a wage, the vat man gets his money, and the door staff and the venue get deposits. She’s not one of these people that’s just going to talk crap and take their money… she’s not that person,” he added. 

James said that Bernie “just wants to let it all pass” and has offered to the meet the family affected to apologise. 

“There’s no way of proving that Bernie did or didn’t say it. She’s not a doctor, but she did tell the girl to go and get a second opinion. 

“She’s offered to meet these people, shake their hands and apologise – what else can she do?

“The whole story is just a big mess. It’s really hurt her,” James said.

By Martin Grant

The CCTV appears to show the perv taking a picture

Police have released CCTV images of an alleged voyeur accused of taking photos up the skirt of a woman in a Boots store.

The man, believed to be aged in his 20s, was caught on security camera at the Tandem Centre at Colliers Wood, London, around lunch time on November 5.

Police said he had been browsing the store for some time before pretending to look at products behind the woman, allegedly putting his mobile phone between her legs and taking the picture.

He left the centre when confronted by a security guard, who told him to delete the images.

The Caucasian man is described as having a slim build, about 6ft tall, with short brown hair and blue eyes.

He was wearing a white Adidas T-shirt, navy blue tracksuit trousers and brown shoes.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Merton Police on 101, quoting image 195987, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Ian Fitzgibbon

THIS IS the former high-flying banker who spent five days in the run-up to Christmas behind bars, after clocking up an incredible €20,000 in unpaid road toll fines on the M50.

Ian Fitzgibbon (54), from Kerdiff Park, Monread Road, Naas, Co. Kildare, became the first person in the State to be jailed over unpaid road tolls when he was sent to Mountjoy Prison on Friday, December 18.

Mr Fitzgibbon, who previously worked with ACC Bank from 2000 to 2005, where he held the position of executive manager of operations, was sentenced to 28 days in prison over five unpaid road toll fines, each totalling €4,000.

A source confirmed to the Sunday World: “He came in on the subject of a penal warrant ordering him to serve 28 days in prison.

“Normally lads who come in for fines do a couple of hours – but when the sums involved are as large as this it’s difficult to justify a quick release.”

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, December 23, Fitzgibbon was rushed to the Mater Hospital after complaining of chest pains.

He was returned to Mountjoy at 7am in the morning and was released from custody a short time later.

It is understood that Fitzgibbon is the first person in the history of the State to be jailed over non-payment of road toll fines.

Fitzgibbon’s financial woes, in the wake of being laid off by ACC Bank in 2008, led to a high-profile legal battle against his former employer in a bid to stave off their attempts to get hold of his Kildare home.

In September his eviction was stopped at the last minute when the High Court granted a stay on the proceedings. Kildare County sheriff Eithne Coughlan had arrived at the home he shares with wife Geraldine in Naas on foot of an order for repossession which had been granted to ACC Bank.

The court had heard Mr Fitzgibbon, a former employee of ACC Bank, had fallen behind on his mortgage repayments after he was made redundant by the bank in 2008.

Mr Fitzgibbon, his wife and their two sons, had sought the adjournment on the basis that he had secured a new job in the U.K. and would soon be in a position to cover the €335,000 owed to ACC.

The judge said he was taking into account that Mr Fitzgibbon was giving an undertaking that if proposals he would submit to the bank were not accepted, he and his family would surrender the house at Kerdiff Park voluntarily.

After failing to pay his original M50 tolls of €3.10 within 24 hours, Fitzgibbon would have been issued with a standard toll request in which €3 would have been added to the bill.

Having failed to pay the request within two weeks, the charge then mushroomed to €47.10 for each toll.

Six weeks later he would have been issued with a toll violation notice, where an additional €103 would have been added bringing the total to €150.10.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) – formally the National Roads Authority – would then have passed the matter on to their enforcement service provider, Pierse Fitzgibbon Solicitor, who would have in turn issued a legal demand notice to Mr Fitzgibbon.

According to experts, when Fitzgibbon ignored or failed to settle the case, it progressed to the next stage and legal proceedings would have been issued in the form of a claim or criminal summons.

Criminal summons can carry a penalty of up to €5,000 per unpaid passage and/or six months imprisonment. 

According to TII, the highest fine in 2015 for a criminal court case was €25,000.

In terms of the civil cases, TII has obtained approximately 2,875 judgements for amounts owed in 2015. 

If a civil claim judgement is not discharged by the defendant then TII has a number of options; including to publish the judgment in Stubbs Gazette and/or placing the judgment in the hands of the Sheriff for seizure of goods equivalent to the value of the debt owed, or registering a judgment mortgage against any property owned by the defendant.

In 2015, TII sent 486 judgements to the relevant Sheriff for collection and approximately 42 vehicles were seized.

In terms of the criminal cases in 2015, of the 274 issued as of the end of October, 66 of the people who received criminal summons have been convicted.  

The remainder of these cases have either not been served with the summons, are awaiting a court date or have resolved their case with TII.

Clubbers are dicing with death

CHOOSING the red pill or the blue pill can literally be a matter of life or death for ecstasy users in Ireland.

Choose one, and within an hour the user could be up dancing as the euphoria of the evening takes hold.   

Choose the other, and the user may start to feel uncomfortable and nauseous – coupled with panic and distress – before collapsing and dying.  

The two scenarios are not the propaganda of anti-drug campaigners, but the reality of what is happening in Ireland. 

Only today, six people suspected of taking designer party drug 2CB have been hospitalised in Cork.

In 2014, health authorities here issued a warning following the deaths of six people who had taken what they believed were ecstasy tablets. 

They looked just like any other tablets, with the same kind of logos people were used to seeing, but instead of containing MDMA, they contained PMA/PMMA – also known as Dr Death. 

MDMA is the chemical name for ecstasy – a drug taken by thousands of clubbers every weekend.

While taking MDMA is not without risks, PMA/PMMA is far more lethal and the number of deaths continued to rise even after the warning.  

A further eight deaths were linked to the drug in Northern Ireland. 

PMA/PMMA is usually sold on the streets as ecstasy and has a much higher level of toxicity than MDMA. 

It also takes longer to have an effect and doesn’t produce the same level of euphoria as MDMA, which has led to people consuming higher amounts.

Dr Death pills are believed to be responsible for at least six deaths in Ireland in recent years. 

Now, a website called Pill Reports is offering warnings about tablets. People who issue the warnings use testing kits on particular pills. 

On several occasions users in Ireland have warned that what they thought was an MDMA tablet turned out to be PMA/PMMA. 

The most recent warning on Pill Reports in Ireland was in September, when a blue pill with a Superman logo was found to contain PMA/PMMA.

The warnings are usually accompanied by a picture of the pill in question and those which contain PMA/PMMA look no different than MDMA pills. 

A source said: “You tend to get waves of different type of tablets. A batch can come out and be shaped like a grenade and only contain MDMA. If that is considered a good pill other drug manufacturers will start making the same style pills, but with PMA instead.”

Deaths in Ireland from PMA include that of Shane Cotton (16), from New Ross in Co. Wexford. The youngster died in Waterford Regional Hospital two years ago. He was believed to have taken six tablets. His grand-aunt Helen Purcell said it was “an awful waste of a young life”.

Conor Murray (23), from North Road, Finglas, Dublin 11, died at the Mater Hospital in August 2013 after pals found him unresponsive in bed. An inquest found PMA, cocaine and ecstasy in his system. 

Laura Richardson (26), from Balbriggan in Dublin, died in July 2013 after collapsing in her fiance’s house. A post-mortem revealed she died from the toxic effects of PMA and cocaine. 

Dean Burke (43), was found dead on the couch at his apartment in Wellmount Road, Finglas, in August 2013. 

His inquest revealed he died from taking a combination of cocaine, PMA and the head shop-type stimulant benzylpiperazine.

Taxi driver Desmond Mahon (51), who was found collapsed in the bedroom of his home at Cardiffsbridge Road in Finglas, Dublin 11, on the evening of June 3, 2013. He had been drinking and taking what he thought were ecstasy tablets, but they actually contained PMA. 

Ana Hick (18), from Dalkey in Dublin, died after collapsing outside a Dublin nightclub last year. It is understood she had taken ecstasy tablets. Her inquest will be heard in the summer. 

Over Christmas her mother Elga urged people to be aware of the dangers. 

“They come sugar-coated with promises of a good night out and excitement but the truth is you are playing with a loaded gun when you decide to take ecstasy or other drugs,” she said.

“I know Ana would want you to remember her as you make your choice and she would want you to say, ‘not on my life’.

Project Know, a U.S.-based addiction education and support service, recently released a report which analysed 27,000 pill test reports from five different countries over a 10-year period.

It found that of the tablets tested in the U.K., which would be similar to those in Ireland, around 50 per cent contained MDMA or a very similar chemical. 

However, around one in a hundred contained PMA/PMMA over the 10-year period, but that figure increased to more than one in 10 in 2014. 

Other drugs sold as ecstasy were found to contain horse tranquiliser, methamphetamine, amphetamines, 2C-B, Mephedrone and Methylone. 

The report stated: “Betting on the purity of any illicit street drug is ultimately a losing proposition. Testing out the composition of any illicit pill on oneself can be a very dangerous game. It’s unrealistic, if not impossible, to envision a scenario involving substance use and abuse if one’s long-term goal is to be happy and healthy.”

The deal took place on O'Connell Street

Potentially lethal drugs are easily sourced from dealers online who are selling to users in Dublin city centre under the nose of gardai.

A special investigation by the Herald has uncovered how within 24 hours of enquiring through Facebook where to buy drugs, a dealer is hand-delivering them on O'Connell Street.

Where once young Irish teens had to have a personal link to a dealer - limiting their access to drugs - they now have access to dozens of potential sources over the internet.

Drugs including cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine and so-called party pills are all openly being marketed on social media.

Security sources have claimed that dealers are increasingly taking advantage of social media and other websites to sell their products and avoid detection by gardai.

Gardai believe a batch of potentially lethal ecstasy tablets, called Green Apple and Green Rolex, which caused a series of hospitalisations in 2014 were bought online.

After logging on to a Facebook page which discussed drug use in Ireland, the Herald asked a number of users where drugs could be bought in the city centre.

One Facebook user pointed out an ad on a popular sales website. The website was openly offering "pollen" for sale.

Pollen is one of the strongest and most expensive types of cannabis resin for sale in Dublin.

The ad read: "Lovely fresh pollen available city centre €50 a q. 100pc genuine and face to face meet no bulls**t no time wasters please."

After a quick exchange of emails, the dealer - who used the name "Colm" - sent his mobile number and offered to meet the next day to sell us an ounce of cannabis (28 grams) for €180.

He wrote: "let me know I'm around city centre. Before 2pm and I'll do an oz for €180.

"Meet me at the GPO at 2pm."

The following day at the meeting point a garda van (above) was parked just metres away in the centre of O'Connell Street.

On his mobile phone, the dealer was undeterred and said: "Just walk towards the statute."

After meeting, the dealer then pointed towards the road behind the closed Clerys department store, saying: "We can walk down the lane over there."

Colm said he had been selling cannabis over Christmas period to make extra cash.

"I have it there every second or third week, I get a little bit in.

"It's in the bag there pal, walk down there. There's 28 (grams) in there."

He claimed he was looking to sell off his last ounce.

"It's a bit [dodgy] meeting f**kers over the internet. You don't know who's who."

The cannabis was never purchased. Cannabis is not the only drug being sold online.

Drugs are still being openly sold on another popular website, which also hosts a series of "adult ads".

One dealer - who uses the moniker "Charlie Sheen" - emails out a weekly product and price list to his customers.

Last month, he wrote: "Added to stock 3mmc and weed cheese strain …out of stock mdma, ket, upjohn…coming soon flake coke, ket, d10, upjohn90, diclazepam."

In one recent post, a dealer was offering to sell prescription drugs straight from the packet.

Ray McAdam, a Fine Gael Councillor for north inner city, said that the easy accessibility of drugs would be a huge source of anxiety for parents.

"The fact that you can pre-order your drug choice, akin to ordering a takeaway meal, is extremely worrying. That is why I want to see the National Drug Squad tackling the availability of these drugs, and making sure that social media companies are working closely with the gardai to stamp this activity out."

Patrick O'Brien

PAEDO Patrick O’Brien made a sick burial plan to have his wife’s ashes laid to rest with his own in the graveyard where he abused their daughter Fiona Doyle.

Our exclusive picture captured the moment vile O’Brien arrived at Colliers Undertakers in Bray from Arbour Hill Prison on Wednesday to say goodbye to wife Bridget, who kept the secret of his abuse for more than four decades.

A Prison Service van collected O’Brien from Arbour Hill and conveyed him to Bray.

Breda was cremated in a secret ceremony on Thursday and her ashes will now be kept – as agreed with Patrick – until after his death, when they will be buried together at Deansgrange graveyard.

“They always said that’s where she’s going… they will be laid to rest together in the graveyard where he abused me,” a heartbroken Fiona (below) this week told the Sunday World.

O’Brien would regularly take Fiona  to Deansgrange Cemetery, where he would clean his parents’ grave before taking her up to a tree near the plot and raping her.

Fiona has always maintained her mother was well aware of her father’s abuse, repeatedly referring to her as “your father’s whore”, but kept the vile secret for more than four decades.

Breda was due to learn last week whether she was to face conspiracy and rape charges in connection with her husband’s sick rape campaign.

Her death from lung cancer on Tuesday came just seven months after she was arrested and quizzed over her role in her husband’s horrific abuse over 10 years.

Vile Patrick (79), was sentenced to 12 years in prison with three suspended in 2013.

“In a way I feel she almost willed her own death because she didn’t want to face up to what she had done,” said Fiona. “But I want to know whether she would have faced charges. I want the message to go out that it is possible for mothers who protect abusers to be charged.

Kyla the tantric masseuse

Meet the stunning brunette who has launched a recruitment drive for her ‘tantric massage’ business - and is telling Irish women they can earn a €1,000 a day “helping married men.”

The pretty 28-year-old, who goes by the name of Kyla, is looking for women to work from her home as part of her team of “incredibly sexy massage therapists”.

She is so desperate to find workers she is even offering potential masseuses free accommodation in her home in North Dublin.

During an interview with our undercover reporter, Kyla claims a lack of qualifications would not be a problem. 

She left us in no doubt about what is really on offer in her studio in one of Dublin’s most exclusive suburbs.

“They (the clients) do come to a full climax because that’s what they expect and that’s the norm everywhere,” she said.

“My average client is married with kids, they don’t want to do anything outside the marriage, they don’t want full service – they just want a nice massage with someone who is very pretty and well dressed.”

Tantra massage claims to be a medical “therapy” that supposedly uses sexual energy to achieve a higher state of consciousness. 

But last year a Dublin-based organisation, called ‘Divine Ground Tantra’, issued a warning telling their customer to look out for prostitutes who are posing as Tantra therapists.

It is believed that some sex workers are ‘re-branding’ their business as a Tantric therapy in order to avoid proposed new laws which will target men who pay for sex. 

Our reporter contacted Kyla after reading an advert which she posted to an adult website reading: ‘Massage Therapist Required.’ 

‘Very well paid job with free accommodation in north Dublin, no experience necessary as full training is provided. Please send brief description about yourself and photo.’

Her website, which claims to provide “The Most Luxury Tantra Massage in Dublin” promises an ‘unforgettable erotic and sensual experience.’

From a picturesque housing estate in Howth, clients can enjoy a variety of services in her home-based studio which include:

“Body-to-body slide massage, tantric touch and orgasmic Lingam/Yoni (Genital) massage to complete the experience.”

Claiming to have more than ten years’ experience in holistic massage, Kyla insists, “Tantric Massage Dublin Therapists are not escorts, we ask all customers to respect their professional pride and please refrain from asking for extra services.”

Despite this, Kyla adds, “I’ll always be sexy and beautiful during our rituals.” 

Detailing the rituals or services available, the website reads: “Imagine yourself being disrobed within the soft glow of candlelight soaking in an organic herbal bath. To relax in a place where I will soothe and lavish upon every inch of your body. 

“All areas will be lovingly attended to, with great meditation music and incense you can drift off into another world. Everything will be focused on your pleasure.”

When our undercover reporter enquires about the job, we are asked to provide a picture and later sent details of a location for an interview.

Immediately we are told what is involved. “You will do a full body standard Swedish massage and naturalist body-to-body massage.

“You only get a few people calling asking you to do a full service, I don’t do that, I tell them to just read my terms and conditions.

“If you were to do a profile, my average client is married with kids. A lot of them will be very stressed in very high-profile jobs. I had one come to me earlier that paid me €150 for 25 minutes when he was on his lunch break,” says Kyla, who later admits Kyla is not her real name.

“The reason I changed my name is because if I see a client with someone I know, if I am with a friend or my boyfriend, I can say that’s not my name or that’s not me. Most girls use a different name for that reason.”

Boasting of the spiritual side of Tantra Massage she adds, “There’s nothing wrong with Tantra Massage because obviously 70 per cent of my clients are married and they’re not compromising their marriage because they are just coming to me for a massage, we’re not escorting services or doing full service with them.”

Getting back to business she informs our reporter, “I am certified to do the massage, I received the training. You would get a business phone and the massage oils and training, the training is very valuable itself. 

Kyla is seeking 'sexy massage therapists' 

“At the moment we would be looking for a fifty-fifty split, in Belfast we can charge £150 for an hour.”

Massage because it is spiritual, it’s not a sexual service, although it is working with the sexual energy, it’s not to be confused with something different, so no one can really define it.”

“People come from Limerick, Drogheda or from the city centre. This area is full of millionaires and billionaires. Recently I did an outcall for one millionaire client; he had an actual yacht and a mansion that was worth about ten million.

“The website sells it to them, it has ten thousand views a day.

“It does take a lot of energy out of you so you need to charge the right price. My price starts at €150.

“I do outcalls to hotels too, there are always people that want an out-call, the demand is in-calls though.”

Michael and Robbie

The two boyish young men sitting in front of me were once promising young athletes at the top of their game.

Michael was regarded as one of the country’s most-talented young hurlers when he lined out for Kilkenny as a teenager, while Robbie was a young show-jumping star who rode competitively at the RDS.

Initially, the chatty pair, clad casually in shorts and runners, seem like any other happy-go-lucky Irish lads their age.

But within minutes, Michael (20), reveals that he used to chew 50 Valium pills just for breakfast in a drug-fuelled decade which robbed him of his childhood, his friends, his mental health and, most painfully, his young son.

The pair are coming towards the end of a detox at Aiséiri Aislinn in Kilkenny, the country’s only residential 12-step treatment centre for adolescent addicts aged between 15 and 21.

Both were hopelessly hooked on Valium,  with a voracious appetite for benzos – benzodiazepines – which could run to 150 pills a day in Robbie’s case.  

“I could take up to 150 or 200 tablets a day and then a bottle of whiskey, a bottle of vodka on top of that,” said the 21-year-old.

“I was on bonsai,” he said, referring to a highly dangerous hallucinogenic, synthetic cannabis.

“It’s all herbs and chemicals. I started with hash in 4th or 5th class and took everything. I smoked crystal meth in a bong,” added Robbie.

Michael says he was taking 115 Valium tablets a day, as well as smoking heroin, up until six weeks ago when he dangerously decided to go cold turkey alone in his house.

His habit cost him €3,000 to €4,000 a week.

“They are €2 a tablet, but if you buy them in bulk you get them for 20 cent a tablet. I was getting thousands. I’d often buy people’s prescriptions. You wouldn’t feel normal without them.  

“I would have 50 in the morning with a joint. I wouldn’t even swallow them, I’d chew them,” said Michael.

“They were my family, my best friend, they made me feel happy. The drugs were the boss. You’re walking around with dribbles coming out of your mouth, but you think you look normal.

“I was told by the doctor that if I had taken the 115 tablets for another two weeks I would be dead.”

The two boys had deeply traumatic childhoods, with Robbie leaving home at 15.

“I took drugs to take the pain away,” he said.

Sara Cassidy (above), the caring team leader at  Aiséiri Aislinn, revealed how the centre not only offers the youngsters a path to recovery, but is also a place where they feel at ease. 

“They’re safe in here,” she said, as we walked around the vast Georgian house with homely red carpets and big, airy bedrooms, which are shared by three or four adolescents.

“Sometimes it’s the only place they have been safe since they were children. In some cases they have never felt safe,” she added, referring to some who have been through horrific childhoods, although the young patients come from all backgrounds.

Behind the welcoming red door in the Georgian House, there is a family atmosphere where the patients often talk for the first time ever about their lives and the triggers behind their addiction.

They are monitored around the clock by nursing staff as they detox, while their days are filled with counselling sessions, therapy, recreation and sports.

Sara said Robbie was like a “dead man walking” when he came into the treatment centre in June.

“I just wanted to go into a corner and die. I couldn’t get out of bed for a week,” he said.

The day before Michael received the call to say he had been accepted to Aiseiri Aislinn he was on his way to get a needle to start injecting heroin for the first time. 

He had previously been smoking heroin, but had decided to mainline the drug to try and block out the agony of his Valium addiction. 

However, just before he got the needle he got a phone call to say he had secured his place.

While his health has improved dramatically in the six weeks since coming off the toxic daily cocktail of drugs, the strain in his young voice reveals the sheer hell he has been through in the last few weeks, trying to come off the drugs he first started taking at the age of 12.

He said: “I detoxed myself at home. I went off the tablets and heroin. I was sweating.  I was broke up. I was brought to hospital with panic attacks. I couldn’t breathe.”

He said he only made the final decision to come off eight years of drug addiction in recent months.

“I lost me child. He’s gone into care. I was fighting with everyone. It’s just not the life for me anymore. My body is not able for it. I’m losing too many people, friendships, relationships.

“I just woke up one morning and said ‘f**k it, I have enough’. It’s either life or death at this stage.”

The toll of the daily dose of drugs taken by the two young boys – who have nearly come to the end of their six-week treatment – is heartbreaking.

In his early teenage years, before drugs took over his life, Robbie had been a young showjumping star.

“I jumped at Cavan, the RDS and Millstreet in Cork a few times.”

Physically, it has left him without a cartilage on one side of his nose.

“It was loose from snorting so I ripped it out. I had a lot of blackouts, shakes, sweats. I’ve been through the wars. I’ve lost teeth.”

Michael’s promising career as a sports star was also a casualty of the addiction which consumed his life.

“I played U-16s for Kilkenny. Drugs took it all away – handball, soccer, everything.”

They both admit they dealt drugs to feed their habits. After intensive weeks of counselling, they also readily divulge how they robbed from their families and complete strangers while they were in the hopeless grip of addiction.

“I was selling heroin, weed, coke, speed.  I was robbing shops and houses, harmless people on the street,” said Michael.

“Wallets, phones, breaking into cars,” added Robbie.

Now, in the cold light of rehab, both express deep regret about their crimes.

“I have such a clear mind now. It’s like ‘how the f**k did I ever do it?’” said Michael.

Robbie revealed he was recently jailed for three months and is still on probation.

“It was all over drugs. Off me head, robbing phones, robbing cars. I woke up in prison. I don’t remember going in.”

Both say that coming down off Valium was the worst.

“It was worse than coming off heroin,” said Michael. “It’s harder coming off benzos.”

Sara said that going back on the same dose of drugs again can be lethal for the boys like Michael and Robbie.

She said: “If they leave treatment and if they take 115 like they did before, the likelihood of dying is very high.”

On top of the physical and psychological ravages of drugs, Michael and Robbie had to face up to their actions during weeks of intensive counselling.

“You have to listen to the truth, what your girlfriend had to say. I’ve two stepsons as well. I want to get better for myself and them and get the family I’ve always wanted,” said Michael.

While the Aiseiri programme has a spiritual dimension, it is not religious. However, both boys wear wooden rosary beads around their necks and say they believe their faith has helped them get through their rehabilitation.

Robbie said he has bright plans for the future.

He said: “I’m going back to showjumping, breaking-in horses. I want to get back on track with my family as well.”

Michael is going to a secondary treatment centre for three months and is looking forward to starting his new life.

“The whole world is out there. This place has done more than save my life. It’s put me on the right track.”

Before I left, Sara Cassidy brought me into a peaceful room where they hold emotional farewell ceremonies for the people who have successfully overcome their drug addiction.

“It takes a huge amount of courage to do what they do,” she said.

“There isn’t a dry eye in the house when they’re leaving. We know they have achieved so much, but we also know the risks when they leave here.”

Our reporter on the streets in Limerick

Ireland may not be among a growing list of countries banning burkinis and full-face veils, but racist sentiment was bubbling under the surface when we took to the streets in the Muslim dress of a burqa and niqab face-covering veil.

The controversial burkini ban on French beaches this week inflamed an already raging debate over anti-Islamic feeling, with photographs of armed French police making a woman remove her Muslim swimsuit on a Nice beach causing outrage.

The Sunday World found the public reaction to the traditional, but ultra-conservative, Islamic dress code provoked a number of bigoted outbursts on Limerick’s streets this week.

The feeling of fastening the black niqab veil and donning the hijab head scarf and burqa is claustrophobic, as I change in the dressing room in the country’s first Islamic clothing store.

When I opted to briefly put the full veil covering over my eyes, it was surprisingly easy to see through the thin black material.

After two hours walking around in the heat in Limerick city with only my eyes visible to the outside world, I felt hot and stuffy, but also discovered the head and face coverings prompted mainly averted gazes, outright gawking and a few blatantly racist comments.

A few minutes after donning the Islamic dress, I walked past two men sitting on steps on Hartstonge Street next to an empty bottle of spirits, who asked for change before shouting: “Is it Halloween yet? Disgraceful…”

While passing the Penneys store on O’Connell Street shortly afterwards, one young man pointed, saying: “Watch that!” 

His friend jeered: “I know. Is there a bomb underneath there, is there?”.

They had brushed by and gone quickly down the street before the comment registered.

In McDonald’s, the friendly server greeted me with the usual “how can I help you?” while in the Spar down the street from the Al Hayaa clothes shop, a young employee enquired about my day and thanked me for coming in to the shop.

A Middle Eastern man in a suit said a friendly “hello, how are you?” as he passed.

In Burger King, I ordered a coffee, but only tried a few sips as the effort behind keeping my face covered while trying to drink the hot liquid nearly unfastened my veil.

Walking around appeared to make passers-by uncomfortable, either because they didn’t want to be caught staring openly or because they were unsettled by the sight of the face-covering niqab.

Snatches of comments like “her face is fully covered” or “look at her” filter through as I walk along on the busy Friday afternoon – but most people studiously avoid eye contact.

Outside Dunnes, an elderly man stopped on the street and openly stared, putting his hand over his eyes to get a better look. On the way back, a brisk-walking middle-aged lady crossly muttered what sounded like: “What kind of a get-up is that?” But when I stopped, asking “what did you say?”, she hurried away.

At shop counters, assistants in the high street stores seemed unsure about approaching with the usual ‘how can I help you?’, but were very friendly and pleasant once presented with a query.

While turning towards Henry Street, two heavy-set middle-aged men shouted across the street.  

As I turned one of the men waved his arms and jeered, shouting “Boo!” in a Scottish accent.

After returning to the dressing room in the country’s first Islamic clothing store on Henry Street, shop owner Foysal Khan was not surprised.

“You were there for two hours,” he noted. “Our wives, mothers and sisters have this every day. They have no voice. 

“They can just come home and tell their husbands. It’s very sad.”

The Bangladeshi father, who is on leave from his role as a research assistant in the areas of physics and energy in the University of Limerick, said he gets very frustrated by the hit-and-run comments by people who rush off after calling out insults.

“They just accuse and run. It makes me so crazy sometimes, so sad.

“They call you ‘Taliban’, ‘Bin Laden’, ‘terrorist’.”

He said women wearing the face veil and men sporting beards get the worst abuse. 

Despite beards having a resurgence in popularity among Irish men, he said his beard is viewed very differently.

“It’s the fashion with a white face, but if you do it with our face it’s a terrorist act,” he said.

Paddy Barnes after he announced he was signing with MGM

He captured the nation’s hearts by winning two Olympic boxing medals, but last week Paddy Barnes set his face against Irish society by backing mob boss Daniel Kinahan.

Paddy claimed there was no “proof” Kinahan was involved in crime when signing for MGM Marbella, a gym linked to the feuding gang. 

Despite the fact that community activists, the Gardaí and Europol are all in agreement about Kinahan’s role in drugs trafficking, Barnes dismissed it all as “slander”.

Here, Sunday World Investigations Editor Nicola Tallant explains to Paddy the truth about the man he is “happy to have in my corner”.

Dear Paddy,

You seemed a bit confused about the reaction to your announcement that you had joined the MGM gym. And even more so this weekend, when you said you knew nothing of the Kinahans and would be happy to have Daniel Kinahan in your corner.

After all, you asked, where’s the facts and the proof? How, you wondered, could people slander Daniel’s good name when he is roaming the world “with no convictions and no warrants for his arrest”?

“If he wants to sit in my corner, he can sit in my corner,” you stated.

I read about how you were in a quandary when MGM made their offer – an offer which you admitted was the only one on the table after the heartache of the Rio Olympics.

With the €40,000 a year you received from Sport Ireland now gone, and with a child on the way, you needed to see the colour of money. And nobody can blame you for that.

We have all been there.

MGM have enticed plenty of young boxers to join their stable. They have plenty of money to get you the fights you desperately want.

But, Paddy, let me tell you a little bit about MGM...

MGM is to Daniel Kinahan what Atletico Nacional Football Club was to Pablo Escobar. 

Have you heard of Escobar? Are you watching Narcos? He is the powerful cocaine dealer with all the money, the one who ran the Medellin Cartel, the one who remorselessly killed any man, woman or child that stood in his way. 

Pablo was a psychopath, but he loved football, and he bought the best players with his blood money so he could control Colombia’s favourite sport. 

Daniel likes boxing. And MGM was born out of an idea he had with his best friend, Matthew Macklin, in the immediate aftermath of Operation Shovel – a multi-agency offensive on the biggest drug gang to ever come out of Ireland and described by the Spanish Government as the “Irish Mafia”.

Daniel and his brother, Christopher Jnr, their father Christopher Kinahan Snr and his sidekick John Cunningham – the Jennifer Guinness kidnapper – were among those arrested and thrown into jail in 2010 by Spanish cops.

The police spent hours listening in on the Kinahans’ phones and they had worked out the structure of their organisation. 

Daniel, the guy you are happy to have in your corner, was just under the top tier, as his dad ran the show. 

And just in case you didn’t know, he is the mob’s head of murder and drug dealing. I think we can safely say that, just like Pablo Escobar, he orders death in the same way the rest of us might ring for a pizza.

Anyway, I digress. Daniel and Matthew decided they should open a gym to give something back to the community. 

They found a premises near Puerto Banus and set themselves up as a not-for-profit organisation. To ingratiate themselves further with the local community, they chose a charity for sick children to donate any money they made to.

That was four years ago, at which point Daniel was a little bit shy about his involvement in MGM.

But, as time went on, Daniel became more confident of himself. He began to pose with the boxers at the club and openly managed them.

I suppose you could say that when he wasn’t organising drug shipments and murder he was a pretty good guy.

Now I am sure, Paddy, you know all about the Regency Hotel and the murder of David Byrne during an MGM weigh-in for a boxing extravaganza.

But maybe you don’t realise what has happened since. 

You see, Daniel, who is now in charge of the cartel after his dad retired, has been very angry that anybody should challenge his authority. 

There are 10 men dead, Paddy, many of them innocent people with nothing to do with organised crime. They have been shot in their doorways, on the streets, in broad daylight.

The rage is like a dark, black, evil cloud that hangs over our city. Kids who are living in the areas most affected by it are petrified.

And do you know what they are doing? They are getting into gangs where they feel safer. And they are talking in awe about Daniel Kinahan.

They are kids just like you once were when you were growing up in Cliftonville in north Belfast. 

We were so proud of you when you brought home your medals from London. You were a true hero, a guy that all the parents would tell their kids about.

So you see Paddy where I am going with this? Do you understand why people are upset? 

Can you comprehend that your sport is being poisoned – and that you have not only become part of that, but you have tried to defend it.

Take the blood money if you must. Wear the shirt of the Kinahan Cartel, but don’t try to tell people destroyed by their drugs and their hate that, really, they aren’t a bad bunch.

And please, Paddy, don’t wear the Tricolour again.

That, at least, is ours. And it cannot be bought.

Davin Flynn

This is arsonist Davin Flynn, who is the Kinahan Cartel’s top lag in Mountjoy Jail and who is now in control of the prison landings where mob members are held.

Ironically, Flynn was jailed for setting fire to a ‘head shop’ after telling a judge he held a grudge over the drug related death of a sibling.

But the Dubliner, who claims to have turned his back on drugs after the death of his brother, now leads the mob at their B Wing stronghold in Mountjoy.

Flynn is listed as the top man among feuding Kinahan associates and even enjoyed a prison visit from his pal Daniel Kinahan as he served his time behind bars.

Prison sources say that every new prisoner who wants to join cartel associates on the landings at Mountjoy now has to seek permission from him.

Flynn went on the run after the blaze destroyed Nirvana – which was one of Dublin’s most successful head shops – in 2010.

Despite later claiming he did it because he hated drugs, officers believe that the Kinahan gang were delighted when the fire shut down the Nirvana head shop in 2010 as it was eating into their profits.

Flynn fled the country as a massive investigation into the fire began and he is believed to have hidden out in Spain. He only handed himself in to gardaí after two European Arrest Warrants were issued. 

Flynn was jailed last year for the massive blaze that caused €1million worth of damage to the Capel Street shop.

Defending him, Michael O’Higgins SC, said that Flynn had decided to overcome his own heroin problem when he saw what the drug was doing to his brother.

Judge Martin Nolan remarked that he held a “grudge” against the shop as it may have sold some of its produce to his brother Liam, who died more than a year after the blaze.

The court heard that Flynn, who has 65 other convictions, was seen on CCTV with another man before the blaze that forced homes to be evacuated and which closed down Capel Street for days afterwards.

Five units of the Dublin Fire Brigade had to be called to quell the blaze and firefighters recovered almost €500,000 in cash from a safe at the neighbouring head shop, Souvenir Seeds Store.

Nirvana was one of Dublin’s most popular head shops and sold the now illegal drug ‘snow blow’ from a hatch up until 4am or 5am.

The CCTV showed Flynn carrying bolt cutters, going through a side gate to the back of the Nirvana premises.

The owner of the shop, 64-year-old Jim Bellamy, who had a chain of head shops, was targeted again in an attack when his Killiney home was hit by a grenade. The grenade exploded when it was thrown through the window of his home.

He was later jailed for two years and fined €100,000 for illegally importing Viagra-like products. The pensioner admitted selling the drugs between 2008 and 2010 and the court found that his company, Harmony Products, had no licence to sell the product.

The court heard that Harmony Products had amassed ‘substantial assets’ over the years and had €1.3 million in assets.

Flynn has been running the B Wing at Mountjoy Jail since the feud between the Hutch and Kinahan factions kicked off.

Mountjoy was traditionally a Hutch controlled prison, but became a cartel jailhouse since the feud ignited, with many of those allied to the Hutch faction moved to different prisons for their safety.

Earlier this year, a coup attempt by associates of the Hutch faction was quelled by the mob, who got word that there was a plan to injure a number of them and force them off the landings.

Prisoner Mark Allen, serving a nine-year sentence for falsely imprisoning father of one Ciaran Noonan in 2011, was moved to Wheatfield after the plot was uncovered.

Other Hutch associates were also moved and joined prisoners including Derek ‘Del Boy’ Hutch who was transferred to Wheatfield after an attempt on his life earlier this year.

Three wings in the prison, A, B and C, are now effectively in the control of inmates heavily aligned with the Kinahan faction.

Stock image

A man was shot several times this evening in a west Dublin gun attack.

Gardai are currently at the scene of the shooting in the Mulhuddart area of west Dublin.

Reports suggest that the victim is receiving treatment at the scene of the attack.

The incident occurred just before 8.20pm this evening.

The victim, in his 30s, is thought to be in a serious condition.

It is understood that the man was shot up to six times by a gunman.

The shooting comes just three days after notorious criminal Mark 'Guinea Pig' Desmond was gunned down in Lucan on Friday evening.

More to follow

Daniel Kinahan

A vital Garda position on the front line of the State’s fight against the Kinahan Cartel remains vacant due to a Department of Finance decision to slash €20K off living expenses for officers.

The post at Europol has remained vacant for a year, despite Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan and justice chief Frances Fitzgerald’s insistence that they will face down organised crime.

Jimmy Guerin, the brother of murdered journalist Veronica, insisted: “One of them must go. Accountants are running this country, trying to balance the books whatever the greater cost. The criminals must be laughing at us and this State’s commitment to fight crime – €20,000 would be nothing to them, pocket change!”

This week a recently retired intelligence officer for the Garda based at Europol took a High Court action against the State seeking equality of pay and allowances with those paid to previous colleagues in the post.

It is understood he withdrew the case due to massive legal costs. Europol was the first international post for Garda Liaison Officers sent abroad to help target organised crime gangs smuggling deadly drugs into Ireland in the early Nineties. 

Since then, the Garda Liaison Bureau has seen a huge increase in intelligence exchanges due to the massive extension of Europol. 

The officer and his team co-ordinated numerous Irish operations at Europol including Operation Shove, which targeted the Kinahan empire, and Operation Oakleaf, which was vital in the dismantling of the Irish rhino horn and Chinese antiques mobile crime gang. 

Europol based intelligence officers have diplomatic status, which facilitates travel around Europe.

However, a joint decision by the Department of Finance and Justice halved allowances for the officers based at Europol.

The new allowance scheme had been roundly rejected by the Association of Garda Sergeants & Inspectors (AGSI), who supported the officer in his action. Once source said: “Why should anyone work abroad and earn less than they would at home? Where’s the incentive?”

The Sunday World understands that management at Garda HQ are now refusing to replace a current vacancy there until the Department of Finance agrees a fair package for officers who have to relocate to The Hague and be on call at all times.

A Fianna Fáil spokesman last night said that the government needs to act immediately to overcome the impasse.

“If the state is serious about fighting organised crime then it must ensure that the two vacancies for a Garda and customs officer are filled immediately. Gangland crime and drug gangs in Dublin are organised from abroad and it will not be possible to stop their murder and drug dealing unless there is an organised and co-ordinated campaign by European police forces,” he said.

“It is embarrassing for this country that a failure to agree a €20,000 living allowance is blocking this country’s participation in this vital area of crime investigation.

Over the weekend Councillor Jimmy Guerin said the situation is “indicative” of where we are as a country.

“The problem is that resources are not being made available and there is no real desire to tackle crime. I find it more upsetting now reading reports about criminal activities than ever before.

“It’s like as if there are people running this country who simply don’t give a s**t. An accountant has cut this money to balance a book as opposed to funding and encouraging investigators gathering intelligence on these dangerous gangs.

“Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan stands over her force and Minister for Justice Francis Fitzgerald is in charge of the security of this State. One of them must go. It’s a simple as that. There is a leadership problem.”