Cocaine Wars (34 page)

As for Declan Duffy, his arrest meant the beginning of the end for both him and the INLA. He was held in Portlaoise until 8 May 2009, when he appeared at the Special Criminal Court to face trial for his membership charge. Surprisingly, he pleaded guilty when he took to the witness box to address the judge. His counsel, Michael O'Higgins, asked him: ‘You are dis- associating yourself from the group, the INLA, to which you have pleaded guilty to membership?' ‘Yes, that's right,' Duffy replied, before adding that he had applied to the Governor of Portlaoise Prison to be moved away from the INLA landing. Because of his guilty plea, he was granted bail on condition that he lodge his own bond of €100 with the court, as well as two independent sureties of €10,000 each. And with that he walked out of the court a free man – much to the annoyance of Gardaí, who did not trust Duffy's renouncement of the INLA one little bit. The INLA top brass in Belfast went ballistic when it learned of Duffy's public denouncement and issued a statement criticising him. On 17 May 2009, Duffy granted an interview to the
Irish Daily Star Sunday
, in which he claimed that he had abandoned a life of crime in favour of learning to play the piano and becoming a guidance counsellor. The criminal said that he wanted to lead a ‘normal life' away from crime. ‘I have had enough of violence and that is basically it. I would hope to lead some sort of relatively normal life now and I would hope to leave the violence behind. I'm learning to play the piano now. I'm doing OK; it's very slow. The only song I can play is ‘Raglan Road'. I'm also starting a BA postgraduate course in guidance counselling.' Duffy was wearing a bulletproof vest when he spoke to the
Star
reporter, Cathal McMahon, and talked about deciding to turn his back on the INLA and crime, after lengthy discussions with family and friends. ‘I have been a member of the INLA all my life, so it was not an easy decision to take. After speaking with a number of former members who left, as well as my own family, I decided to leave it.' It is thought that Duffy was about to be expelled from the organisation, after an internal inquiry was ordered by the Northern leadership into the negative publicity that Duffy's feud with Freddie Thompson had brought. ‘The investigation is a load of crap as far as I'm concerned. It is my opinion that the organisation wasn't able to handle the negative media coverage that is attached to me. They need to grow a thicker skin.' Duffy did not mention Freddie Thompson by name during the interview, but was asked if it was true that his group demands protection money from drug dealers. He answered: ‘It doesn't work like that. If a drug dealer has money you go and take it. You don't ask questions.' It was probably an attitude like that which got Duffy into the bother that he now found himself in. Operating in Dublin is very different from working up north where paramilitary groups control each area. In Dublin it is criminal gangs that rule and they don't take kindly to ‘Northies' coming down and stepping on their toes. Nevertheless, Duffy claimed that his peace had been made with Freddie Thompson and that all the previous tension between the gang and the INLA had been resolved. ‘I have no enemies. The feuds with drug dealers are over and no one is out to get me, but that could change overnight.' Gardaí were very suspicious, especially as they knew that Duffy's almost biblical transformation from criminal to pacifist was made to curry favour with the judge who would be sentencing him for membership of an illegal organisation. If Duffy thought that he would be free for long to enjoy his new-found status as a peace lover, without any enemies, then he was in for a shock. On 21 May, he was arrested on foot on a European arrest warrant and taken to the High Court. The British authorities had requested his extradition for questioning about the murder of army recruitment officer Michael Newman in 1992.

Sergeant Newman had never even served in Northern Ireland and was not wearing his uniform when he was shot in the head as he left his office in Derby city centre. The thirty-four-year-old, who was engaged to be married, was so badly injured that his life support machine had to be turned off the following morning. A three-man INLA cell carried out the murder. Declan Duffy was involved along with Joseph Magee and Anthony ‘Fanta' Gorman. Magee was jailed for twenty-five years in 2004, after pleading guilty to the murder on the understanding that he would be released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement after just two years. Anthony Gorman was arrested in the same month as Duffy, and was also being sought for extradition. The case against Duffy was adjourned, and he was remanded back into custody pending a later court appearance.

Just eight days later, he appeared before the Special Criminal Court, where details of his arrest the previous June were heard. Detective Superintendent Diarmaid O'Sullivan from the Garda Special Detective Unit gave evidence that officers had then received confidential information in August 2007 that the INLA had planned to extort money from Co. Cork businessman Denis Maguire by kidnapping him. A massive Garda surveillance operation got underway. On 18 October, Duffy and another man were seen driving to Cork, where they booked into the Silver Springs hotel using false names and addresses. The next day Duffy and his pal drove to Maguire's home in Montenotte, but used anti-surveillance techniques along the way to make sure that they weren't being followed. Little did Duffy know that there were a number of Garda teams assigned to watch him at various locations. Duffy was obviously doing a dry run, and returned to the Silver Springs hotel. On 6 November, Duffy and the same man again travelled to Cork and booked into the same hotel, using the same false names and addresses. Three other men from the INLA booked into Jurys Inn in Cork City. They all travelled to Maguire's house. Three of the men went into the premises but Duffy stayed outside. After a few minutes the men came out and all drove back to the city centre. The following morning, Duffy was again spotted outside the Maguire home. When Maguire's wife got into her car and drove to the city centre, Duffy followed her. However, Denis Maguire then made an unexpected trip to Spain, which threw the kidnap plan into jeopardy. Duffy and the four other men then shook hands and parted. The four men and a fifth man were later arrested and charged with attempted extortion of the businessman and of INLA membership. Evidence was heard that when Duffy had been detained on 22 June 2007, his house was searched, and books of evidence relating to three of the men charged in connection with the Cork extortion plot were found. Gardaí interviewed Duffy a total of twelve times; Detective Superintendent O'Sullivan said he ‘generally was evasive in relation to the answers'. O'Sullivan agreed with Duffy's defence counsel that he had since disassociated himself from the INLA and that this was a ‘significant factor'.

Paul Hogan, a school principal and member of the Castlerea Prison visiting committee, also gave evidence and said that he had a ‘degree of contact' with Duffy while he was previously in jail. He told the court that he believed the ‘penny has finally dropped' for Duffy. Hogan said: ‘He has kids – eight and ten years old – who are at a critical point. They need a dad. His partner told me she put it up to him if he doesn't disassociate with all forms of subversive activity, she'll part ways with him. I honestly believe Declan is not going to re-offend. I think Declan is ready to move on with his life, if he's given a chance.'

Because Duffy was being tried in the non-jury Special Criminal Court, three judges decided his fate. The presiding judge, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, said the offence was a ‘serious one'. She said a ‘significant factor' in her mind was Duffy's previous conviction ‘arising out of the so-called Ballymount incident'. However, she said that he had pleaded guilty to the charge and added that the court ‘places significant weight on the public disassociation from the INLA'. She jailed him for four years and backdated the sentence to 2 July 2007. In June 2009 the thirty-five-year-old was in touch with the media again to talk about his proposed extradition to the UK over the Sergeant Newman murder case. He said, in an interview with the
Derby Telegraph
before his court appearance, ‘The police have wanted to speak to me about this killing for a very long time and I'm ready to meet them. I won't gain anything by remaining silent during the interview, so I'm going to tell them everything I know. I would never have spoken to the police in the past, but my war is over and there are things I have to get off my chest.' He even claimed that he was prepared to write an apology letter to the dead soldier's family. ‘This man was a family man and it is regrettable that he was killed. I would be happy to meet with any member of his family to explain to them the circumstances of why soldiers at that time were targeted. The war is over now and I acknowledge the hurt caused to Irish and English people. I just want to put my past behind me.' Elizabeth Robinson, who was Michael Newman's fiancée, blasted Duffy's apology, saying: ‘Writing a letter would devastate his mum and dad. What could he say to his parents? How could he apologise for taking their only son? They [the INLA] wrote to them at the time, explaining that he was just another cog in the wheel. I don't know what he is hoping to achieve by writing to me or his parents. Is he wanting forgiveness for murder? He can say what he likes but he will never get that from me. I became a completely different person after the man I loved was taken away. This is a political war but we are not part of it. I was only twenty-eight when he died and I did not know much about the situation. I am more worldly now and understand they have a political war. I understand they think they have their reasons, but what reason is there for killing anybody?' In October 2009, the INLA issued a statement saying that the time had now come for it to lay down its arms permanently.

On 22 July 2010, Declan Duffy finally faced a court of law to answer for the murder of Sergeant Newman eighteen years previously. At Stafford Crown Court in Staffordshire the thirty-six-year-old pleaded guilty to the slaying and was given a mandatory life sentence, which, under English law, means he will serve a minimum of twenty-four years in prison. The judge presiding over the case, Justice Julia Macur, described the murder as a ‘heinous crime' that was carried out for political reasons. She added: ‘The death of Mr Newman that afternoon caused horror, panic, anger and anxiety, not merely for his family and friends but also for the public. The jailing of Declan ‘Whacker' Duffy no doubt came as a relief to Freddie Thompson and his gang who were clearly terrified of the renegade terrorist and his cohorts. It marked the end of a bloody chapter that introduced pipe bombs as the weapon of choice for the feuding criminals. Although Duffy may be gone for good, the legacy of the deadly pipe bomb with which he flooded the streets will certainly outlive him.

L
IFE WAS BECOMING
very eventful for Wayne McNally, now a senior member of the Rattigan gang. Ever since being shot in the face in February 2007, in what was a very up-close-and-personal encounter with death, Wayne McNally was on a path of self-destruction. His self-destructive path would inevitably lead to a lengthy spell behind bars or a violent end. After recuperating for a few months, he came back into the feud with a vengeance and was involved in several incidents. Getting McNally off the streets had been high on the Gardaí's list of priorities. On 10 February 2008, the twenty-three-year-old attempted to gain entry into the Hush Nightclub at the popular Red Cow Inn complex, just off the M50. After getting into the queue, the bouncers decided that they did not want McNally on the premises and turned him away. McNally was angry at the perceived slight. He then got into a row with another man who was also in the queue. One of the bouncers, David Gilsenan, stepped in between the two men to stop the fight. McNally and his opponent walked away, which seemed like the end of the incident.

However, McNally returned a while later and asked to go into the club to talk to his girlfriend, who had been allowed in. Mr Gilsenan refused him entry because the club was closing in half an hour. McNally said nothing and walked away, but a few minutes later somebody shouted, ‘Watch your back', and the bouncer turned around to see the flash of a gun muzzle and heard a gunshot. The bullet hit Gilsenan between his nose and upper ear and exited behind the same ear. He suffered extensive injuries and was rushed to hospital, while McNally fled in an Audi A4 car. The car had been stolen earlier that night from outside The Square shopping centre in Tallaght. News of the shooting was quickly broadcast on the Garda radio system and officers across the city were on the lookout for a male, his identity not being known at that time. Witnesses described the gunman as ‘having the gaunt look of a junkie' and being seemingly ‘out of it'. A couple of hours after the shooting, Detective Gardaí Tim O'Keefe and Kieran O'Sullivan from Kevin Street Garda Station were on patrol around the Dolphin's Barn flats complex when they saw Wayne McNally walking towards them. McNally's reputation for violence made him instantly recognisable to the Gardaí. When McNally saw the two officers he dropped a screwdriver from his hand. The Gardaí searched him. They found a second screwdriver and a flashlight. Detective Garda O'Keefe told McNally to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed. McNally refused, so the Garda grabbed his arm to forcibly cuff him. However, McNally got free and ran through several gardens trying to escape. He had to duck under several clothes lines to avoid knocking himself on his ear. With Detective Garda O'Keefe in hot pursuit, McNally grabbed a wooden pole from a clothes line and pulled it down as he ran past it, hitting the detective on the hand and breaking a bone. The brave Garda kept up the pursuit and tackled McNally, who punched him in the face. The two detectives then managed to restrain and arrest McNally. Unknown to them, McNally was attempting to get back to the stolen Audi and get his hands on the Glock pistol that was sitting on the front passenger seat. When he was taken back to Kevin Street for questioning, McNally denied any knowledge of the gun or the stolen car, but later confessed when he was shown the firearm. It was fully loaded with six rounds ready to fire. The serial number of the gun had been filed off to make it untraceable. McNally eventually opened up about the shooting of the bouncer and claimed that he had meant to shoot over his head. CCTV footage captured the incident – a young boy had been standing less than 200 m away from where Gilsenan was shot. McNally told Gardaí: ‘I was walking away and something clicked, so I turned around and let a shot off.' McNally was on heroin at the time of the incident and later pleaded guilty to possessing a handgun with intent to endanger life, attempting to cause serious harm to David Gilsenan, possessing a stolen car, assaulting the two Gardaí and having two screwdrivers with intent to commit a crime. He was remanded in custody from the day he was arrested. He was held in prison until he was sentenced in October 2009, when he was jailed for thirteen years. It meant that he was now out of the feud permanently, which was a massive blow to the Rattigan mob and a great victory for Gardaí. McNally is considered a violent psychopath who let his drug addiction get the better of him. He is suspected of being involved in planning the Wayne Zambra murder. His prison term really meant that a violent and dangerous man was off the streets, which had the effect of quelling the feud for a time, because he was a central player and one of Rattigan's major lieutenants.

With Freddie Thompson moving back and forth between Ireland and Spain because of the various threats to his life, Declan Duffy in prison, and now Wayne McNally locked up, a vacuum developed in Crumlin and Drimagh with new opportunities to move in on territory that Thompson and Rattigan once controlled with iron fists. Much like the way that Declan Gavin and Brian Rattigan had seen an opportunity with the break-up of the Gilligan gang ten years previously, six young upstarts from the local area also saw their chance to make a name for themselves and began to get involved in the feud. Rattigan and Thompson were inclined to turn a blind eye to this next generation of drug dealers, because the youngsters aligned themselves with the two gangs. The six youngsters didn't go out on their own and take on Thompson and Rattigan, because in many cases they were either related to or close associates of some of the main players. Three of the new generation took Thompson's side and the other three joined Rattigan's mob. The new generation, while effectively working for the two gang bosses, pretty much did what they wanted to do, and started to target each other with gusto, much as their bosses did when Declan Gavin's gang split after the Holiday Inn seizure. However, due to legal reasons their identities cannot be revealed. They are all in their late teens or early twenties. The leader of the three that were aligned to the Thompson side is known as ‘Mad Dog', from Crumlin. He was the individual who had been Freddie Thompson's driver and who had convinced Thompson to have Jonathan Dunne murder Ian Kenny in July 2007, because he had been involved in a bitter feud with Kenny. The second man is also from Crumlin. He is the son of one of Martin ‘The Viper' Foley's closest friends. The third is a relation of one of Freddie Thompson's close associates. On the Rattigan side two of the young men are from Drimnagh, one of whom is distantly related to John and Noel Roche, who were both murdered in the feud. The third young member is from Crumlin.

The six men also have their own followers and junior gang members and there is a total of twenty individuals in the second generation of Crumlin-Drimnagh criminals. Unlike the Thompson and Rattigan gangs, who preferred drug dealing to carrying out actual physical crime, the youngsters saw big potential in robbing jewellery stores. There was a spate of armed robberies on jewellers from Dublin to Galway, with members of both sides being arrested and charged with armed robberies. From the summer of 2008 onwards, this next generation of criminals really came into its own and went on the rampage, making sure that Gardaí did not get a second's respite investigating a feud that really should have been coming to a natural end, because most of the main players were either in prison or dead. In July 2008, it seemed – for a day at least – that the youngsters would get their chance to take over one side of the gang completely, when a rumour started to circulate that Freddie Thompson had been murdered in Spain. Several informers contacted their Garda handlers with the news, and Gardaí made informal contact with police in Spain, but there was no truth to the stories. It is believed that Thompson himself spread the rumour as some sort of tactical ploy to see what the reaction would be back in Dublin to his death. The youngsters would just have to bide their time before taking over completely.

In August 2008, the Gardaí suffered a very public humiliation when a top secret and highly sensitive intelligence document containing the names, addresses, photographs and car registrations of twenty feuding criminals was stolen from the back of a Garda squad car that was parked at Blackrock Garda Station in South Dublin. The highly-restricted Criminal Intelligence Bulletin was stolen from the car when it was parked in the private car park at the station. Gardaí in the Organised Crime Unit had compiled the confidential dossier after learning that both sides of the feud had been renting houses in some of the most salubrious areas of Dublin, including Stepaside, Blackrock, Leopardstown and Dun Laoghaire. The houses were being used as ‘safe' accommodation, and the criminals had no idea that Gardaí knew where they were. The list was compiled so that local Gardaí would not be surprised if any of the safe houses were attacked. Garda management was also concerned that innocent people living in houses next to the ones being rented by gang members – or new tenants in houses previously occupied by the criminals – could also inadvertently get caught up in the feuding if their home was pipe bombed or shot at in error. The intelligence report was circulated to detectives around South Dublin stations with a warning that it should not be left where members of the public could access it. The car was left unattended while a detective went into Blackrock station to do some work, and by sheer coincidence, the younger brother of one of the next generation of criminals saw the empty squad car and decided to break into it. As luck would have it, he happened upon the list, which was a veritable treasure trove of information on both the Thompson gang and the Rattigan gang. The names and updated addresses would be highly valuable to the opposite side and it would pay thousands of euro to know the locations of their rivals. Gardaí have little doubt that the list was photocopied and distributed to the Thompson gang to be acted on, but once the story of the break-in appeared in the
Sunday Tribune
, the criminals knew their addresses had been compromised, and, nearly without exception, moved away from the addresses. The following week Ken Foy, Crime Correspondent of the
Irish Daily Star Sunday
, received a copy of the dossier in the post. The sender said he was from an organisation called ‘Black Watch'. Gardaí have no doubt that the document was sent to Foy so it would be published and the Gardaí embarrassed. Foy printed non-sensitive extracts of the report, and his newspaper received a sizeable circulation boost in the process. In a statement to the
Sunday Tribune
when the story broke, the then Garda Press Officer said: ‘The Gardaí are aware that a criminal intelligence document is in the possession of a member of the public. The document was compiled for Garda use only and contains aspects of criminal intelligence, including some personal information. Gardaí are endeavouring to contact those named in the document, and appropriate advice will be given. The circumstances in which this document ended up outside of the Garda organisation are being actively investigated.' Nothing ever came of the investigation though.

During this period Freddie was frequently travelling between Ireland and Spain. He even grew a full beard in a futile effort to avoid recognition. On 19 August, he was stopped in a car, along with his brother Ritchie, on Dolphin Road in Drimnagh. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and joked with Gardaí about his new look. With not a hair on his head and a massive beard, his attempt to go incognito back-fired, and he was more recognisable than ever. He soon shaved the beard off and went back to his tried and tested wig.

***

On 9 September 2008, Christopher ‘Git' McDonagh was watching TV in the bedroom of his home at Woodavens Estate in Ronanstown, West Dublin, when he was startled by the sound of the front door being kicked in. It was just before midnight and by the time the twenty-seven-year-old realised what was happening, he was confronted by two gunmen who opened fire on him, with one bullet hitting him in the chest. McDonagh's girlfriend was lying in bed next to him. She ran for her life into the next bedroom. The father-of-one desperately tried to escape and stumbled across the room to the window, where he jumped onto the porch of the front door before leaping onto the bonnet of a car parked in the driveway. When the two shooters saw him flee they took the sensible option and ran down the stairs into the front garden. Because he had been badly injured after he was shot, McDonagh could only manage to crawl away on his knees and hadn't even made it past the front gate. One of the gunmen ran over to him and fired four shots into his head from close range. He died just minutes later, and the two gunmen escaped in a waiting car, which was driven by a third man. The car had been fitted with a taxi plate so as to not attract people's attention while it was casing the area to check if McDonagh was home. The shooting took place just metres from Ronanstown Garda Station, but by the time officers arrived at the scene, the car was gone, in the direction of Lucan. McDonagh's girlfriend was obviously extremely traumatised by seeing her partner murdered in front of her and she was comforted by friends and relations. The day after the murder, McDonagh's mother left a floral tribute of red and pink roses in the front garden with a note saying: ‘All my love my son... I love you, Mam. XXX'

‘Git' McDonagh was a second-hand car dealer and owned a company that operated out of premises on the Naas Road. McDonagh was involved in criminality and was suspected of laundering drugs money through his company. He was also suspected of associating with several well-known criminal gangs, including Freddie Thompson's and Karl Breen's. McDonagh was originally from Raphoe Road in Crumlin, and had only moved to Ronanstown four months before his murder. He was well known to Gardaí. In 2006, he handed over €60,000 to the CAB, after he could not account for €40,000 in cash that was found in his possession when Gardaí stopped him in Crumlin in 2004. In 2005, he had been given a three-year suspended sentence for possession of a firearm. Both Gardaí and McDonagh knew that his life was in danger, and he had been told that he was being targeted on several occasions before his death. McDonagh obviously took these warnings very seriously and had installed an expensive, high-quality CCTV system in his home, and was paranoid about his personal safety.