Paul Cullen

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Mob boss got wrong message

SLAIN CRIMINAL Paul Cullen was executed on the orders of one of Eamon 'the Don' Dunne's lieutenants, because he wrongly blamed him for trying set up his pal. Convicted drug dealer Cullen (26), was shot dead as he drank in the Cabra House pub on Dublin's northside with his family last Sunday evening just after 7pm. He had previously received death threats from his former associates over an unpaid drug debt and had been formally warned his life was in danger by gardai.

However, a source close to the Cullen family - who asked not to be named - claimed the dad of one was murdered over a misinterpreted text message. He insisted that a senior member of a drugs gang - which was previously headed up by Eamon 'the Don' Dunne - had vowed to kill Cullen last summer.

The mobster threatened to execute Cullen because he wrongly blamed him for trying to set up his pal, a violent gunman from Cabra. The threat came after gardai were called to investigate reports that a gunman had attempted to gain access to Cullen's family home on August 3 last year.

Hitmen

"Paul was killed because he sent a text to a mate in Finglas saying he was having a party and would they like to come over," the source said.

"The guy in Finglas replied: 'Who is there?' Paul answered: 'Me, me bro and [a well-known criminal].'

"So then the Finglas lads Paul texted rang around and got a gun and tried to kill him [the well-known criminal] in Paul's house.

"Paul never wanted to set him up, he never would have brought a gang of hitmen to his dad's house and him in a wheelchair.

A family source said: "We want people to know we are not revenging his murder, we want peace."

Gardai are currently investigating reports that 'the Don's' pal was spotted in the vicinity of the Cabra House in the hours before Cullen was killed. The notorious gangster is well known to gardai, but has so far managed to escape without any serious criminal convictions. The criminal was a high-profile mourner at Dunne's funeral and was a close associate of Alan and Wayne Bradley. He was one of six mobsters who formed the inner core of Dunne's gang and has remained heavily involved in the drugs trade since his death.

Cullen was shot six times in front of shocked drinkers before the gunman fled the scene with an accomplice on a motorbike. The convicted criminal knew his life was under "serious danger" ever since gardai seized over €50,000 of cannabis from him in January, 2007. The source close to the Cullen family admitted he had been threatened over drugs debts, but claimed they had tried to pay them off.

"We don't want trouble, we have had to pay a lot of money since Paul's release. We paid, €25,000, €15,000 and €8,000 at different times.We just want peace now"

Notorious

Cullen was part of a gang of young criminals from Cabra - who are all in their mid 20s - who were heavily involved in the drugs trade and had links to some of the country's most notorious mobsters. His associates included Karl Hyland - the nephew of slain mobster Martin 'Marlo' Hyland - and convicted murderer Craig White. He was also a childhood pal of a notorious gunman and armed robber from Cabra who worked for Eamon Dunne and is suspected of involvement in the murder of Baiba Saulite. It is this violent criminal who Cullen had been accused of setting up for murder.

Cullen was well known to gardai and had a number of serious convictions. In November 2008 he appeared in court along with his cousin, Carl Cullen (20), where they were given custodial sentences for attacking a female garda while she was arresting another youth.

Imposed

At the time of the court appearance, Cullen was serving a six-year sentence which had been imposed in February of that year for storing almost €56,000 worth of cannabis resin. He was storing the drugs to clear drug debts, as he was in fear of his life after receiving a bullet in the post.

The two pleaded guilty to assaulting Garda Amanda Lynch on November 30, 2007. Paul Cullen also pleaded guilty to taking possession of an official Garda weapon. Judge Katherine Delahunt imposed a three-year sentence, with the final 18 months of Cullen's sentence suspended.

Thomas 'Slab' Murphy

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DUP sharpshooter Ian Paisley Jnr is gunning for ex-Provo warlord Thomas 'Slab' Murphy. Veteran republican Murphy is in the Westminster MP's sights after the 60-year-old's Bandit Country house was raided during this week's joint Garda, PSNI and Customs mega-raid on suspected fake fuel scam smugglers.

Murphy was stopped and questioned near his Ballybinaby mansion, which sits just six feet on the Republic's side of the Border in County Louth. He was not arrested. Murphy has already appeared in court in Dublin to face nine allegations of failing to file income tax returns from 1994 to 1996.

In 2011, he was named as Chief-of-Staff of the Provos' Army Council. He has publicly denied that role.

The home of a petrol retailer and the offices of an international transport company were also raided. In one raid, Gardai claimed to have shut down "the biggest fuel laundering operation on these islands'.

Estimates put its annual production capacity at 10 million litres - which equates to a loss to the Dublin Exchequer of €5.5m a year.

However, Paisley Jnr called for an inquiry into why not one person was lifted and held for questioning. He stated: "For there to have been not one single arrest is a complete embarrassment."

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Under-18s manager is grilled over sick killing

AN ALLEGED dissident gunman who was arrested following the murder of RIRA chief Peter Butterly is the current manager of Shamrock Rovers U-18s team. Eddie McGrath (31), was one of five men arrested in the car park of the Huntsman Inn, Gormanstown, Co. Meath, minutes after Butterly was gunned down.

Yesterday, dad-of-three Butterly - a former RIRA leader in Louth - was buried in a low-key ceremony without any paramilitary trappings. Butterly had recently been expelled from the dissident organisation by the Northern-based leadership for allegedly pocketing RIRA funds.

Charged

Last Saturday, Tallaght man McGrath was charged with the unlawful possession of a 9mm calibre Beretta handgun and ammunition. The suspected dissident was also charged with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself on the IRA. McGrath's arrest has sent shock waves through Shamrock Rovers, where he is on the coaching staff.

In 2005, he was a member of the fans' '400 club', who rescued Rovers from financial ruin by buying the soccer club. Our photograph shows McGrath, from Land Dale Lawns in Tallaght, coaching a Shamrock Rovers team. McGrath remains a member of the club, is currently employed as the manager of club's U-18 squad and has previously been involved in coaching schoolboy teams.

"Eddie has been a dedicated member of the club for a long number of years."

On Thursday, McGrath was one of three Dublin men remanded in custody for an extra week in connection with the Butterly shooting. Brought David Cullen, from Brackenwood Ave in Balbriggan, and Dean Evans (22), from Grange Park Rise, Raheny, were also brought before the Special Criminal Court. The three men had been charged in connection with the shooting at a special sitting of the non-jury court last Saturday night.

Evans and McGrath were each charged with the unlawful possession of a 9mm-calibre Beretta semiautomatic pistol and seven rounds of ammunition with intent to endanger life. They were also each charged with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the IRA on March 6. Cullen was charged with the unlawful possession of a 9mm-calibre Beretta semi-automatic pistol.

Last night, a spokesperson for Shamrock Rovers said anyone working with the club has to undergo rigorous garda vetting. "Shamrock Rovers has over 400 members. However, most have no involvement in the running of the football club apart from attending AGMs and contributing their monthly membership fee. Along with that,we have 3,000 season ticket holders.

"Shamrock Rovers also has over 100 volunteers who help the club in a number of different ways, from our schoolboy section, to match-day activities, to selling tickets. Those volunteering in our schoolboy section are Garda-vetted for the protection of the young people they work with."

Butterly (35) - a former commander for the RIRA in Co. Louth - was blasted in the chest and head in the pub's car park last Wednesday. The Gardai's elite Emergency Response Unit (ERU) arrived at the scene within minutes and arrested five men in a number of cars at the scene. It is believed that Gardai had the suspected dissidents under surveillance and had been monitoring the meeting between the group and Butterly.

However, they had no advance knowledge of a shooting. Butterly's murder is just the latest shooting in a bitter internal battle for control of the so-called new IRA.

Dignified

During the service, one of his daughters fought back tears and was comforted by Butterly's wife Eithne. Butterly is survived by his wife, his parents,Vera and Matt, and children Aoife, Ciara and Matthew. Unlike Alan Ryan's funeral last year, there was no visible sign yesterday of any paramilitary display at the funeral.

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Killers offered massive contract

CONTRACT killers have been offered thousands of euro by members of a traveller clan locked in a lethal feud in the west of Ireland. Notorious gangsters linked to Fat John McCarthy's gang based in Moyross, Limerick, have been drafted in by members of the Mayo-based Collins clan, according to sources.

Cash was put on the table in a bid to force members of the 'Diesel' Maughan family to back down from their bitter feud with the Collins side. The row escalated this week after a member of the Maughan family was shot and wounded in Castlebar, Co Mayo on Thursday night. In January, another relation, Jack Maughan, was shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting at a filling station in the town.

Attack

Sources say, however, that the Limerick thugs had nothing to do with the latest gun attack on the man in his 30s, who suffered a stomach wound.

"It looks like someone got fed up waiting and decided to take it on themselves," said a Sunday World source.

Gardai made an appeal for witnesses to the gun attack at 8.30pm last Thursday at a house in Castlebar's Castlegrove Estate. The victim was hit after a number of shots were fired at the house before the attackers made their getaway in a bronzecoloured Audi.

Last January, 21- year-old Jack Maughan was shot twice in a drive-by attack at a service station in the town as he got back into his Ford Transit van. A gunman opened fire with what is thought to have been a pellet gun from a black car that pulled up alongside him. The young man suffered wounds to his back and was later treated at Mayo General Hospital. There is no suggestion that either of the wounded men are involved in the dangerous feud which flared up last summer.

Last year, a senior member of the Collins clan was hit with a tax demand for €1 million after an investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau. It came after a series of raids carried out by CAB officers in November 2010, when €100,000 in cash and luxury goods were seized at properties in Ballina.

Nicola's Family

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Heartbroken mum reveals loss as she returns from killer's trial

THE heartbroken mum of tragic Nicola Furlong has revealed she visited her daughter's graveside for some "chit chat" after returning from Japan on Friday.

Smirking monster Richard Hinds was jailed for between five and 10 years this week for her murder in a Tokyo court. The 'Christian' musician brutally strangled Nicola last May shortly after meeting her and a pal in the Japanese capital. He then tried to destroy the 21- year-old student's reputation by claiming he was forced to restrain her because she demanded rough sex.

Nicola's mum Angela has said the first thing she did after arriving back to her Co Wexford home on Friday was to visit her daughter's grave. "I went out to Nicola today (Fri). I do talk to her, I was telling her how I got on in Japan and that I'd seen 'the man'," she said.

Friends

"Generally chit chat. She's had a load of babysitters since we've been gone all my friends and work colleagues and Nicola's friends have been going out and leaving flowers for her.

"The grave actually looked amazing. I put my flowers out and everything for her - it was perfect."

Killer Hinds (19) - originally from Memphis, Tennessee - was classified as a minor under Japanese law and because of this the maximum term he will serve is ten years in prison. However, he could still be freed in half that time if he is granted parole.

On RTE's Late Late Show, Nicola's sister, Angela, said she believes Hinds should have been given the death penalty. "We knew that was the most he was going to get was 10 years because he was tried as a minor.

"I would like the death penalty but that's not going to happen.

"He took Nicola's life but I feel like my life is over.

"I get up everyday, I've no purpose or meaning and he did that. I've so much hatred for him. Why should he get to live? Five years - he'll be 24 he can still live his life."

Last May, Nicola and a female friend were unconscious when they were brought to the hotel by two Americans - but staff helped put both girls into wheelchairs. CCTV footage also showed hotel workers accompanying the unconscious girls and the two men - Richard Hinds and James Blackston - to separate rooms.

Drugs

Nicola's dad, Andrew, said he believes his daughter and her pal were drugged by the two Americans.

"The two collapsed at the same time, so we're convinced," he said.

Andrew also confirmed that he is planning to sue the luxury Tokyo hotel. He believes his daughter's life could have been saved if hotel workers had acted differently.

"They should have been brought to a hospital, not up to a bedroom.

"They just wanted them out of the way."

Aaron Rattigan

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On-the-run gangster tries to throw thugs off his scent

ON-THE-RUN gangster Aaron Rattigan is facing serious threats on his life but joked he'd end up dead if he fled to Mexico. Aaron (22), a cousin of convicted killer and drug lord Brian Rattigan, was officially warned by gardai that there is a threat to his life from associates of criminal figure Karl Fay.

The mob, who are mostly in their 20s, control the drug trade in the Charlemont Street area and Swan Grove in Ranelagh, south Dublin, while associates of Rattigan are also involved in drug dealing in the south inner city with a stronghold in the Basin Street Flats. Fay (22), has survived a number of attempts on his life and his associates blame figures linked to Rattigan for the most recent attack late last year. There was a pipe-bomb attack on Rattigan's home in January as a result of the feud.

Shipment

The threat to Aaron Rattigan comes in the same week his cousin Brian received a 17-year sentence for arranging a €1 million heroin shipment while he was in Portlaoise Prison. Brian is already serving a life sentence for the murder of Declan Gavin. Aaron Rattigan posted on Facebook in recent days telling friends he was going to the Algarve in Portugal.

He added: "The sun should do me good.They wouldn't be able for me in Mexico. I'd end up dead or something."

However, sources said they did not believe he had fled the country. Rattigan has a number of convictions including for possession of a knife, the sale and supply of a small amount of heroin, public order offences and several for criminal damage. Rattigan's pal Gerard Eglington (27) was shot dead last September by associates of Fat Freddie Thompson following an attack on a relative of Thompson. He denies he is a gangland criminal, but the young criminals linked to Karl Fay have put him in their sights.

A VEHICLE found abandoned in the North was carrying a viable bomb that was destined for an attack on a police station, the PSNI said yesterday (Sat). The device, which was made safe, was found in a rural part of Co Fermanagh, not far from the luxury Lough Erne golf resort where this June's G8 conference of world leaders is being held.

The alert at Derrylin Road - the main arterial route between Enniskillen and Dublin - was raised early Friday morning and caused local homes to be evacuated. Dissident republicans are suspected of planting the bomb.

"The people responsible for this have no regard for the lives of anyone in our community," PSNI district commander Pauline Shields said.

"Although investigations are at an early stage it is our assessment at present that this vehicle was destined for Lisnaskea PSNI station."

Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers said: "The abandoned device dealt with by PSNI sadly reminds us that there are still a small minority who are determined to damage communities and cause death and disruption.They are totally out of touch with what the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland want."

US president Barack Obama, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian president Vladimir Putin are expected to attend the G8 meeting. A massive security operation will be mounted and thousands of police officers from UK forces will be drafted in to help bolster PSNI numbers.

Dissident republicans have launched a series of bomb attacks against members of the security forces in recent months. A week ago, the Police Service of Northern Ireland discovered a mortar-type device aimed towards New Barnsley police station in north Belfast.

Also last week, three officers escaped injury when an explosive device detonated within metres of them as they patrolled the outskirts of Belfast. Earlier this month, two men were arrested after police intercepted a van carrying four mortar bombs which were primed and ready to fire in Derry.

Declan 'Whacker' Duffy

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Gardai on alert as former INLA terror boss back on streets

ONE OF the country's most notorious and dangerous criminals is back on the streets of the capital, despite being jailed for life just two and a half years ago. The Sunday World can reveal that former INLA boss Declan 'Whacker' Duffy has been released from prison despite being caged for life in July 2010 for the murder of a British soldier.

Gardai are on high alert after the 39- year-old psychopath was set free last weekend and immediately made his way to Dublin, where he is staying with the mother of his two children. The return of Duffy is a hugely significant and worrying development, with senior gardai expecting him to make a move to fill the power vacuum that exists in Dublin's gangland following the Real IRA civil war and the departure of several major drug dealers.

Officers are shocked that Duffy has reemerged and thought they had seen the end of him when a judge ordered that he serve a minimum of 24 years in jail after admitting the murder of Sergeant Michael Newman in Derby, England, in 1992. However, the callous killer managed to use the fact that the slaying was an act of terror to successfully argue that he should be freed under the Good Friday Agreement.

Scream

Despite renouncing the INLA when he was sentenced, gardai do not believe Duffy will lead an honest life and have already observed him drinking with several senior criminals. Sources say he is a ruthless and violent criminal who takes pleasure in inflicting pain on people. The Armagh-born thug has bragged about how he enjoys kneecapping victims and hearing them scream.

An undercover Sunday World team observed Duffy outside a flat in central Dublin on Friday. He was dressed in jeans and a woollen jacket and wore a cap to hide his face. He jumped in a waiting car and drove off in heavy traffic, where it is understood he met an associate in a pub in Tallaght.

One senior source said: "We couldn't believe it when the word came through that he was back. He was spotted drunk at least four times this week and is already associating with well-known criminals.

"Declan is not a man to rest on his laurels. He knows the Real IRA is imploding and that gangland is up in the air after Eamon Kelly was murdered last year and the lads who murdered Alan Ryan have fled the country.

"We think he has calculated that Dublin is rife for taking over. He is right too and we are keeping a very, very close eye on developments, as is the Special Branch.Where Duffy is, violence and death and destruction inevitably follow."

Whacker Duffy led the INLA in the infamous 'Ballymount Bloodbath' in 1999. During the notorious incident, an INLA active service unit took six men hostage when they went to a factory in the Ballymount industrial estate to demand money from the owner. The men were viciously tortured, but when 12 of their friends arrived a mass brawl ensued and INLA volunteer Patrick 'Bo' Campbell died after being struck with a machete.

Duffy was caught with a note detailing exactly what happened in Ballymount and was jailed for nine years. When he was released in February 2007 he reorganised the INLA and set about taking over from drug dealing gangs in Dublin 8. He lived in an apartment on Hanover Street with his longterm partner, which was not far from where gang boss Freddie Thompson lived.

He decided to target Thompson and took over the doors of pubs and clubs around the city centre and started dealing drugs. He stepped on the toes of three senior drug dealers that were supplied by Thompson and successfully demanded protection money to allow them to operate. It was common knowledge that Duffy once acted as muscle for 'the Border Fox' Dessie O'Hare and criminals were scared stiff of him because of this and what happened at Ballymount.

When Thompson heard of the protection racket he was furious and the pair had a massive row in a pub on Francis Street. Duffy said that he was in the area to stay and that if Freddie did not give up his territory then he would be murdered.

Harmed

Freddie took out a €10,000 contract against Duffy, which led the terror chief to say: "If any member of the INLA or our political wing is harmed, the INLA will wipe them out.

"If they think they can run off to Spain and live happy ever after, they should think again. They will be hunted down."

Despite his talk, Duffy took to wearing a bullet-proof vest and had two permanent bodyguards. In September 2007 he placed a pipe bomb under Thompson's car but it didn't explode. Duffy took his plan to another level on November 22 when INLA volunteer Denis Dwyer was arrested on Camden Street with an AK- 47 in his carrier bag. He was on his way to shoot Fat Freddie. When Thompson heard of the incident he knew that Declan Duffy would not give up until he was dead and fled to Spain.

As well as taking on Thompson's mob, Duffy also beat up the head of the IRA in Dublin and took over the Provos' protection rackets. Gardaí were alarmed by how quickly Duffy's control was growing, and members of the Special Detective Unit started to take a keen interest in him.

Escaping

He had joined the INLA when he was just 13 after his brother was shot dead by the British army in 1987. He had a long criminal record and had served a five-year sentence for escaping from custody at gunpoint. In August 2007 gardaí received a tip-off that a man had been kidnapped and was being held hostage at a house in Tallaght.

When armed Emergency Response Unit officers raided the house, they discovered a 21-year-old man bound and gagged lying naked in the bath upstairs. He was in agony and covered in blood, having been attacked with a wheel brace and a broom handle. The torture went on for a number of hours.

The victim was a son of a small West Dublin businessman, who the gang was trying to extort money from. Nine people were arrested in a downstairs room and Duffy was among them.The victim was so scared that he refused to make a complaint.

In June 2008, Duffy was arrested outside the home of a prominent businessman in Cork after gardai foiled a suspected kidnap operation. He was charged with INLA membership and remanded in custody to Portlaoise Prison.

Surprisingly

In May 2009, when he surprisingly pleaded guilty before the special criminal court and publically denounced the INLA, he was jailed for four years and was also arrested on foot of a European arrest warrant for the murder of Michael Newman.

The 34-year-old army recruitment officer was shot dead in Derby by three INLA men, including Duffy and Joseph 'Mad Dog' Magee. Magee was jailed for 25 years in 2004 on the understanding he would be released under the Good Friday agreement.

After completing his sentence for INLA membership in April 2010, he was extradited to Britain, where he pleaded guilty to the murder of Sergeant Newman. The court heard how the soldier was a "soft target" because he was unarmed. He was shot at point-blank range in the head in what the judge described as a "heinous crime". He sentenced Duffy to life imprisonment, saying that he should be behind bars for a minimum of 24 years. However, he was freed last week after just two and a half years.

Donal MacIntyre and Nicola Tallant spoke to country legend Margo, Daniel O'Donnell's sister, about her hunt for Ireland's longest missing child Mary Boyle. See video interview here.

Donal MacIntyre investigates new findings on the alleged links of child killer Robert Black to missing Mary Boyle. Watch the video here.

Nicola Tallant retraces the final fateful walk taken by Mary Boyle, Ireland's longest missing child. Watch the video here.

Kieran Boylan

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No evidence to suggest collusion in drugs case

SENIOR gardai accused of colluding with a major drug trafficker have been cleared of all wrongdoing, The Sunday World can reveal that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has decided that no officers will face charges in the case of convicted drug dealer Kieran Boylan.

The decision is a blow to the Garda Ombudsman, which spent four years and a massive amount of money investigating the alleged collusion between senior detectives and Boylan. Sources say that the Ombudsman was confident that at least one garda would face charges, but the DPP did not feel there was any evidence to justify bringing a criminal prosecution, despite a file being sent which ran to hundreds of pages.

The careers of several respected senior officers have been damaged by the allegations that they allowed Boylan to operate in exchange for information about rival dealers, but sources say that the officers have now been totally vindicated. The 42-year-old haulier from Ardee, Co. Louth, was first busted in 2003 in connection with a €750,000 haul of cocaine. He was on bail awaiting trial when he was again arrested by detectives from the Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU) in October 2005 in the yard of his haulage business. He was in possession of €1.7m worth of cocaine and heroin.

It had been claimed that while Boylan was in custody he said he was working for a senior detective and claimed he had been involved in several entrapment operations where smaller players were arrested. He was charged with the possession of drugs with intent for sale or supply, but the charges were later dropped.

They were then reinstated, but in 2008 the State dropped them again. In the meantime he was jailed in 2006 for three years for the 2003 bust. Gardai then conducted an internal inquiry into the Boylan case.

However, the Garda Ombudsman's office was not happy and launched its own investigation soon afterwards. It spent the last four years trying to build a case.

The Ombudsman had investigated whether Boylan was given favourable treatment by the Gardai because he was involved in setting up other drug dealers for arrest. Officials also probed whether this was a factor in the charges being dropped by the DPP and whether gardai knew he was using his haulage business to import drugs.

It was also alleged that senior gardai colluded with Boylan to get him an international haulage licence and provided false and misleading information to the Department of Transport, saying that he had no drugs convictions. His licence was subsequently revoked.

Hindering

A British Sunday newspaper has written extensively about the Boylan case, alleging all sorts of wrongdoing against officers, including that gardai were hindering the investigation by non-cooperation.

This led Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan to make an unprecedented intervention last November, saying: "I was quite surprised when I saw the report, given the level of cooperation there has been between the two bodies.

"I have cooperated fully and facilitated fully all of the inquiries that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission have requested. It would be unwise to go beyond that given that the report will be available in a number of weeks."

Although gardai were cleared of doing anything wrong in their dealings with Boylan, a new system for dealing with informants was introduced after the case. All informants must now be officially registered.

adam graham

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Coked-up thug who nearly ran over gardai walks free

TWO CRIMINALS exposed by the Sunday World as being key figures in a new gang that has taken over from the Brian Rattigan and Freddie Thompson mobs led gardai on a high-speed chase across the capital. Adam Graham and Michael Fagan managed to avoid jail terms this week, despite evidence that a garda had to jump out of their way and narrowly escaped being hit by their speeding stolen car, which ran over his bike.

Both men are key figures in a gang of 25 young thugs based around the Basin Street area in Dublin 8. They are well known to gardai and officers were disappointed after Graham was given a three-year suspended sentence for his part in the incident, while Fagan was also spared jail and hit with a two-and-ahalf- year suspended jail term.

Graham (22), was high on cocaine and booze in September 2011 when he was spotted driving erratically on the South Circular Road in the city. Michael Fagan was in the front passenger seat of the €15,000 jeep, that had been stolen the previous month, A marked garda car signalled for the pair to stop, but Graham swerved around the patrol car and sped away. He broke several red lights and a number of motorists had to take evasive action to avoid being hit.

Two gardai on mountain bikes were waiting at St James's Walk to intercept the motor, but Graham didn't stop and drove straight at them. One garda had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit and his bike was crushed by the thugs. The impact was so strong that the jeep's windscreen was smashed.

Panicked

The jeep then lost control and crashed into the wall of a garden on Uppercross Road and the pair were arrested a few minutes later hiding in another garden. The jeep was written off after the crash.The two admitted their involvement, with Graham claiming he "panicked" when he saw the gardai. He has 21 previous convictions for offences including drugs possession and theft. He had been banned from driving at the time of the incident.

Adam's older brother Paul is also well known to gardai. The 23-yearold was recently jailed for five years after being caught with €35,000 worth of heroin which he claimed he was selling because he had a baby on the way.The pair are originally from Crumlin but now live in Portlaoise. Michael Fagan, from Sperrin Road in Drimnagh, is regarded as being an up-and-coming gangster and has links to jailed gang boss Brian Rattigan.

In September 2009 his family home was shot at by criminals aligned with Freddie Thompson, and the previous year his cousin Mark was shot in a field in Ballyfermot by three senior members of the Thompson mob. Fagan briefly moved to England after a bench warrant was issued for his arrest in connection with a car theft. He is regularly stopped and searched by detectives.

Graham and Fagan both featured in our exposé last month when we identified them as key members of the Basin Street mob. The gang is led by Brian Rattigan's cousin Aaron. We revealed how he had been warned by gardai that his life is in danger because of his feuding with mobsters linked to Thompson.

The Rattigan and Thompson gangs have been replaced by six new mobs with 200 members. Gardai have declared war on the outfits and have set up an elite new anti-gang squad to crack down on their activities.

Dangerous

The 200 serious criminals, some as young as 16, are operating in just a few square miles in Dublin's south inner city and sources say they are the most dangerous mobsters that gardai have ever encountered. The new mobs have sprung up from the original Crumlin/Drimnagh feud, but sources say that Thompson and Rattigan have no control over the latest generation of criminals.

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Top cop says initial search was flawed as site is revisited

MARY BOYLE was murdered within an hour of her disappearance and never left the land around her family homestead alive, a top cop close to the investigation has told the Sunday World. Retired sergeant Martin Collins, who was part of the 40-strong team of officers who investigated the case in 1977, claims the secrets to her mysterious disappearance - Ireland's longest missing child case - lie around the hillside where she was last seen.

His dramatic claims come as gardai confirm they are to dig up the suspected gravesite identified by witnesses days after Mary disappeared, but which has never been examined since.

"Mary was dead within an hour of going missing and never left the Cashelard hillside alive.That was my view very shortly into the investigation and, 36-years later that view has not changed," Martin Collins told us, standing just metres from the spot where she was last seen alive.

Collins, who interviewed many of the Boyle and Gallagher family members in the immediate aftermath of Mary's disappearance on the afternoon of March 18, 1977, believes that little Mary was killed on the hillside and was buried and then moved to another location to avoid detection.

Killed

"He said that the perpetrator had some kind of history. He wouldn't talk after that and to this day that witness has never spoken of it again."

"On the first night there were five of us searching for Mary, with about a dozen civilians and some of the Gallagher and Boyle family members.

"We had a helicopter out for about an hour too.The next day we had anything up to 30-35 officers plus a couple of hundred civilians, but within hours of the search I was very concerned that Mary was dead and had died on the hillside near her family homestead."

"Over the next four weeks, without exaggeration, thousands of people scoured the nearby lands searching and searching again every inch of the area.

"To the back of the land where she was last seen - about four minutes walk from her home- we had 800 people in one line walking from Lake Columcille to the Gallagher lands and there was not a trace," he said.

"During the search we found men's pipes, discarded cigarettes, the remains of an apple, a couple of ladies' neck chains, some boxes of matches, but no child. There wasn't a hope in the world that there was a thing left behind."

He told the Sunday World that initially it was not a murder hunt but a missing child investigation and that was the key problem.

"Maybe we would have made more progress if we were a little more realistic and less hopeful. It is not plausible that she left the hillside under her own steam and that wasn't appreciated soon enough in the investigation," Collins said.

Consumed

Collins has dedicated years to finding Mary, but feels that from the outset there were problems which hampered the investigation. In the initial days he was most concerned that unauthorised members of the public had access to the incident room. Collins had raised objections, but was overruled.

"There were some people, members of the public, in the meetings who should not have been there. Today it wouldn't have happened and that may have compromised the investigation," he said.

Collins, who retired in 1994, has continued to fight to discover what happened to Mary. He was instrumental in passing on information about the discovery of a potential gravesite on the Gallagher lands after he was contacted by one witness, Michael McGonigle, who had seen his original sighting of a fresh grave go unchecked in 1977.

Four years after he retired, Michael McGonigle brought Martin Collins to the gravesite and the former cop passed all the information on to Ballyshannon Gardai. Just three weeks ago, a garda team visited the site, 36 years after they were first made aware of it. This remains the only real clue to Mary's fate and this week Collins joined another gravesite witness, John Gallagher (no relation to the family), as the Sunday World, along with land survey specialists Scantech, conducted a geophysical survey of the site to check for any clues to Mary's body.

Clue

"Although the land may have settled, we can give the gardai some direction and can help focus their search when our results come back. We have scanned the ground and now we have to analyse the results," Scantech operations manager, Declan Timlin said this weekend.

This week gardai confirmed to Ann Boyle, Mary's mother, that they will be searching the potential gravesite in an effort to uncover any clues to her mysterious disappearance.

"I phoned them this week and they told me that they will dig up that part of the hillside. It's very tough dealing with this now, all alone," she said.

John Gallagher, the cattle dealer who stumbled across the gravesite 36 years ago, had mixed emotions as he walked the ground again.

"It should have been searched back then. We knew a fresh grave when we saw one and hopefully it can help us to find Mary. That's what we all want," he said.

Garda Adrian Donohoe

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Cops hunting killers of Garda Adrian Donohoe crack down with local raids

PATROLCRIMINALS operating in the Border area will have no place to hide as gardai step up operations as part of the investigation into Det. Garda Adrian Donohoe's murder in Co. Louth. Gardai seized mobile phones and laptops during raids on a house and farmlands in Hackballscross on Tuesday as part of the investigation. They also seized firearms, bombs and drugs during another raid in Kilsaran, Castlebellingham, in a separate search.

Sources say the find is linked to criminal elements operating in the border area between Louth and Armagh.

Increase

The searches form part of a major crackdown on all criminal elements operating in the area following the murder of Garda Donohoe in January outside Lordship Credit Union, near Dundalk.

A source told the Sunday World: "A big Rubicon was crossed on the 25th of January. These raids are continuous.

"The searches in Hackballscross were targeting those on the periphery of the main players.

"There will be an increase in raids over the coming weeks. It goes right back to the raid on [Thomas] 'Slab' Murphy.

"There is a strategy in place now. If you or your children or neighbours are involved in crime we will stay there and keep the pressure on," added the source.

The source said even those who had no involvement in the killing are being targeted as part of a major crackdown on all forms of criminality in the Border area.

"We know who the key players are.We could bring them in in the morning if we wanted to, but we don't want to waste valuable interviewing time.

"When we go for them we go for them for good. It won't be a PR stunt. When they come in, they won't be coming out."

The source added that anyone else involved in crime in that area should be worried. "If you get involved or your friends are involved you need to know we will not go away."

The gang involved are aged in their early 20s and are based in the Border area.

The Sunday World previously confronted one of the alleged suspects in the case and asked if he had anything to say on the killing.

He replied: "No, I wish to make no comment about that."

The five chief suspects have been involved in previous robberies around the Border areas. The search in Hackballscross was carried out on Tuesday. No arrests were made. Separate searches were carried out at Kilsaran House later in the week.

Value

Gardai found firearms, bombs and heroin estimated to have a street value of €45,000. While it was initially believed the find was linked to dissidents, a source said intelligence suggests criminal elements had stored the materials there.

"We are more inclined to think it is more criminality than subversive," the source said.

"But in that area they are all part of the same gene pool and when you scratch the surface you find all sorts of connections," the source added.

Forensic experts carried out a detailed search of the area over the last couple of days as part of the investigation.They are hopeful the forensics will lead to arrests. Criminals operating in the area are now feeling massive pressure from gardai and sources say it will be stepped up over the coming weeks.

"There will be no place to hide. Whether it is drug dealers, armed robbers or killers, they will be targeted.We will not let up and we will not go away. We are there and we are there in force. The Sunday World has previously revealed how all the suspects have strong links to Crossmaglen GAA club in Co Armagh.

Phone records show that all five mobile phones go off for a number of hours on the night of the murder, despite the fact that the gang have given alibis that they were at home eating Chinese takeaways and watching movies when the father of two was gunned down.

Painstaking

Gardai are confident all will be brought before the Special Criminal Court, but not for at least three to six months when a painstaking investigation is completed. The gang, many of whom come from a long line of Republican criminals, are not described as organised criminals. Instead they are cocaine-fuelled young boy racers who have not strayed too far from home to commit their crimes.

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RIRA threaten son of 'the Smuggler' in bitter feud

THE REAL IRA and a veteran crime lord known as 'the Smuggler' have gone to war after the criminal's son was threatened with murder in a bitter extortion row.

The Smuggler, who controls the country's illegal cigarette racket, was forced to return to Ireland from his Spanish bolthole this week after a six-man RIRA active service unit demanded €200,000 from his eldest son. The terror group demanded that the cash be paid within the next two weeks or the Smuggler's son will end up with a "bullet in the head".

The Smuggler is a former IRA member who has acted as a mentor to some of the country's most feared hitmen, including killer brothers Keith and Eric 'Lucky' Wilson. He previously took on the slain RIRA boss Alan Ryan and organised the Players Lounge pub to be peppered with bullets while Ryan was drinking inside.

This led to three murders, but a peace deal was signed between the two men after the Smuggler paid a substantial one-off "six-figure payment" to the Real IRA and allowed one of his lieutenants to be kneecapped in retaliation for the pub shooting.

Despite the agreement, the new leadership of the Real IRA has returned to the Smuggler and told him that his deal with Ryan died when the 31-year old was shot dead last September. The Real IRA recently made similar demands to drugs baron Troy Jordan, despite the fact he had also given Ryan a one-off payment. The Sunday World recently revealed how Jordan was so worried about the dissident murder threat that he has fled the country permanently.

However, the Smuggler, who is in his late 50s and lives in the Costa del Sol, has chosen to go the opposite route and is back in Dublin to round up muscle. He has vowed that they will not get another penny from him and that he is prepared to take them on with force.

Loyal

Gardai are aware of the worrying developments and the Special Branch has stepped up its surveillance of key RIRA suspects in a bid to prevent a hit attempt on the Smuggler, his son, or anyone loyal to them. Gardai in Ballyfermot, west Dublin, are paying the Smugglers' family home constant attention and are also monitoring his criminal associates for signs they are planning pre-emptive attacks on the dissidents.

Despite the fact that nearly a dozen Real IRA members have been caught in two recent Garda operations and put behind bars, there are still several dozen members capable of targeting the Smuggler. They are being led by the Derry command of RIRA, with the notorious Colin Duffy calling the shots. Duffy has made moves to clean out the Ryan gang and organised for two Ryan lieutenants, 'Fat' Deccy Smyth and Nathan Kinsella, to be shot and expelled from RIRA.

The Sunday World first lifted the lid on the activities of the Smuggler and how he had purchased several business so it would appear that he was legitimate. However, Gardai launched a probe into his affairs and the Criminal Assets Bureau hit him with a substantial bill, but this was later overturned on appeal.

The Smuggler has amassed millions of euro from the highly organised racket he controls smuggling cigarettes from Spain into Ireland. Evidence of just how big his organisation is came last October when a container carrying over €3m worth of illegal cigarettes was seized at Dublin Port. His sellers are so violent that customs officers in Dublin city centre searching for his illegal smokes have to wear stabproof vests to protect them from attacks.

The Smuggler controls operations from a luxury villa in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, while his eldest son is in day-today charge of the business from the capital. His son is one of the main targets of Ballyfermot detectives and has been linked to several death threats issued to rivals in west Dublin.

The Smuggler has been importing cigarettes for nearly two decades and has also invested in several Dublin pubs. He was once a key member of the Concerned Parents Against Drugs movement in the early 1980s and was a member of the IRA and had links to Sinn Fein. He took three psycho brothers from Ballyfermot - Eric, John and Keith Wilson - under his wing, getting them to carry out several murders on his behalf. After carrying out shootings, the men would relax in his Spanish villa.

He was making so much money that he came on Alan Ryan's radar in 2010. Ryan demanded protection money, but the Smuggler refused to pay and there were several violent tit-for-tat incidents. It culminated in the Players Lounge pub in Fairview, Dublin, being shot up in July 2010, leaving three innocent men with gunshot wounds. The Smuggler ordered John Wilson to carry out the shooting, which was seen as an attempted murder on Alan Ryan.

Slaying

The following month, one of the Smuggler's associates, Colm 'Collie' Owens, was shot dead in retaliation by RIRA in Finglas, on the city's northside. Real IRA member Daniel Gaynor was then murdered by Keith Wilson in revenge for Owens's slaying. Keith Wilson was later jailed for life for this murder, while his brother Eric was also jailed after executing Englishman Daniel Smith in Spain.

The Smuggler was then left weakened and is understood to have paid more than €150,000 to the Real IRA and gave the go-ahead for John Wilson to be kneecapped as punishment for the Players Lounge shooting. The Smuggler then decided that with Keith and Eric Wilson locked up for life for murder, he would tie up the loose ends.

In September 2012 John Wilson (35), was brutally executed by 'the Smuggler's' new associates. The Smuggler thought that he had made his peace with the RIRA, but following the threats to his son, gardai fear that there will be a bloody escalation of the feud.

Gary Campion

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"WHEN YOU shoot a man, he drops down. He doesn't go flying backwards. It doesn't matter if it's a shotgun or a nine mil, that stuff you see in the pictures is pure crap. I never saw anyone move more than a few inches in my life. I'll tell you another thing. If you shoot a man in the back of the head, a funny thing happens. His two eyeballs will pop out of the front of his head and just hang there on stalks - ha ha!"

THESE DESPICABLE remarks were made by twisted Limerick hitman, Gary Campion, the only Irish contract killer to ever have been twice convicted of murder. The warped world of the smug sicko is revealed in a new book, Blood On The Streets: A Murderous History of Limerick, by Anthony Galvin.

It's a grim Tale of Two Cities story about the Edwardian mansions on the banks of the Shannon and the street corner yobs who graduate from drinking dens and joyriding to owning them. Motormouth Campion was top of the race from the gutter, but is now serving two life sentences for the murder of bouncer Brian Fitzgerald and the gangland double cross of 'Fat' Frankie Ryan.

Another insight into what makes the Moyross mobster tick was revealed in this vile rant: "I have shot people in this town for €10,000, and I'd have no difficulty spending €20,000 to have you blown away. It wouldn't be my first time. If it's the last thing I do, I'll get you and your family."

At the receiving end of the abuse was John Ryan - a Limerick prison officer aware the thug had previously firebombed the home of another colleague in the past. 

"Ryan, you still have to go out that Dublin Road every evening,h Campion added, to let the officer know he knew where he lived.

From an early age, the Moyross madman was blooded for a life of crime, writes Galvin, a Limerick Leader crime reporter and true crime author. Some gardai believe Campion's older brothers William and Noel let the teenager tag along when they broke into an isolated farmhouse near Bridgetown, Co. Clare, in 2004 and hung 68-year-old Paud Skehan upside down before dousing him in petrol. The pensioner died of his injuries after a neighbour heard him the following day in terrible agony.

By the time he'd come of age, Gary Campion was more than capable of inflicting horrors all on his own. Initially allying himself to the warring McCarthy-Dundon faction in the city, the two-faced-gangster switched sides to double cross 'Fat' Frankie Ryan. Gary shot Ryan in the back of the head while Ryan was driving, then leaned forward to take over the steering wheel.

His brazen bloodlust made him the first choice contract killer for Philip Collopy - the mobster who took over the warring Keane-Collopy faction after the murder of mobster Kieran Keane. Collopy wanted someone to burst into a party and 'kill everyone'. Campion was caught with a loaded Sig automatic pistol with a full clip of 15 rounds after gardai got a tip-off.

While awaiting trial for the murder of Ryan, he was charged with the murder of bouncer Brian Fitzgerald. His involvement in yet another of Limerick's milestone murders saw the affable father-of-two and head of security at Doc's nightclub shot dead on his own doorstep.

Evil Campion went on another of his infamous rants: "Fucking scumbags is all ye are. I'll clean up Moyross, not ye."

The thug thicko has been banged up for life since 2007. But even behind bars, he can't stay out of trouble. A total of 73 knotted bags of heroin - each with a street value of €2,300 - were found in his cell. In marked contrast, the book also covers the heavy toll paid by the victims of crime at the other end of the spectrum. Last year, Steve Collins was forced to flee the country with his family. He'd spoken out against the thugs whofd murdered his son Roy for testifying against a member of the McCarthy-Dundon gang. Roy was gunned down in cold blood because he had testified against a member of the McCarthy- Dundon mob.

That murder and the murder of Garryowen rugby captain Shane Geoghegan in a case of mistaken identity has threatened to turn Ireland's third largest city into a nogo zone. At the heart of the city there are also crimes typically associated with poverty and deprivation.

When Michael Manning (25), raped and murdered a 65-year-old nurse who happened to cross his path, he blamed the demon drink. He would become the last man hanged in Mounjoy in 1948. Majella Boland (23), paid Declan Malone IR£200 to blow away her violent husband Patrick in the 1980s, in a domestic that involved no mercy. Having been beaten twice during her pregnancies and suffering two miscarriages as a result, Majella was not prepared to allow her husband turn on her daughter.

After he dangled the child out the window of a second storey window, she paid the bargain basement price to have him bumped off. By the 1990s the gangs of marauding teens were stoning windows, joyriding, breaking into empty houses to use as drinking dens and firebombing others as they turned sections of the city into a warzone. 

Blood On The Streets by Anthony Galvin was published this week by Mainstream Publishing. STG£12.99

FURY greeted the 10-year sentence handed down to American dancer Richard Hinds, convicted last month of murdering Nicola Furlong.

However, a brutal regime awaits him in the notorious Japanese prison where foreign inmates are held, with sources saying it makes Ireland's jails look like holiday camps. Even Amnesty International has criticised how prisoners are treated in Japan's jails, especially at the highsecurity prison at Fuchu, just outside Tokyo.

One south county Dublin man, 'John', who spent three years in the military-style lock-up for drug smuggling offences, this week told the Sunday World what's in store for Hinds.

"When they punish you your wrists are cuffed to a belt and you wear shorts with a hole in it so you can go to the toilet, but you can't clean yourself," he said.

"The food is pushed in through the door and you basically have to get down on your hands and knees and eat it like a dog," he told the Sunday World.

"I spent two months extra in the prison for looking to the left one day. It's impossible not to break the rules if they want to catch you," he explained.

Even at night, if a prisoner kicked the door or made noise out of frustration, they could be subdued with a stun gun and carried to the 'investigation block'. Inmates move and work in silence under strict supervision. They are regularly strip-searched and never get to mix with each other.

"I spent three years on the top of three landings, but in all that time I never ever seen the bloke in the cell next door to me," John said.

For foreigners, the extreme discipline is a shock to the system. Everything from how to walk, sit and where to place things in a cell are detailed in a long list of rules which, if broken, results in punishment.

"On arrival you're placed in the induction block.You spend about a week there, getting your head shaved the second day and then you start being woken up at six every morning to be trained in how to march properly," John said.

"It's a real shock to the system, both mentally and physically. They use longterm foreigners that have been there years and speak Japanese fluently to assist them with this training as none of the prison officers will speak English, even if they know it.

"All they do is bark the orders with a foghorn at the new arrivals and the longterm trustees that are bilingual bark them on to you in English," he added.

"When I say these guys are trustees they don't get any privileges for this work, but it's easier than working in the factories. At least they get to move around."

"Finally, after you've been trained to their satisfaction you then get allocated to another cell on the worker- bees wing, which has 80 cells on each floor and there's three floors," he said.

In the morning, as prisoners face the wall, they obey as orders to move are shouted through a foghorn.

"We'd then turn around and stand on a white line that is in the middle of the landing, so the 15 of us would be standing on this white line and we'd have to outstretch our arms to make sure we were the correct distance away from the guy in front," John added.

"Basically we had to start marching on the spot on this white line for about five minutes to warm up."

Prisoners were then marched out of the landing, where they would join up with Japanese prisoners.

"Each of the 50 or so factories hold about 60 prisoners, 15 foreigners and about 45 Japanese, so we would be in three lines of 20 prisoners in each line," he said.

"On arriving at the factory we were made march upstairs and into a changing room, to change from our drab cell clothes into the working uniform, which is exactly the same kind of clobber.

"The deal is to get you to strip naked, open your mouth to show you weren't hiding anything, which would be impossible as we had absolutely no access to any kind of implements or weapons.

"This strip search was more of an excuse to make you feel embarrassed and simply part of the twisted regime.

"We'd be made open our mouths, turn around naked, spread your ass cheeks, also armpit checks and the soles of your feet were checked, before we had to change into the factory version of clothes," John told the Sunday World.

Escaped

"Then we had to line up again inside the factory and start with the ridiculous regime of lining up in three lines of 20 to get our number called again, as if one of us might have escaped while we were walking the 300 metres from the cell block to the factory."

"All the staff are martial artists on a mission to inflict as much mental torture on you as is possible - usually for doing nothing at all," he claimed.

John believes Hinds will be singled out by the prison guards because of the highprofile nature of the case.

"I guarantee he won't be coming out after five, he'll serve most of the 10-year sentence," he said.

Nicola Tallant tracks down the father of killer Rose Lynch and learns about her republican upbringing, her links to convicted CIRA thug, and who exactly was on the six person hit list that Rose intended to kill. Watch the video here.

Steven 'Rossi' Walsh

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THE EX-PARTNER of child rapist Steven 'Rossi' Walsh has been found dead in her home in a case of suspected suicide.

The vulnerable mum-of-three had become involved with mobster Walsh (65), after he was released from prison in 2005 and the couple had a child together.

The pretty Dubliner - who was then in her early 20s - had been sucked in by Walsh's claims to be a Robin Hood style bandit.

Walsh had been a leading member of Martin 'the General' Cahill's gang and was once the most feared criminal in Dublin.

However, in 2007, the ageing gangster was arrested in connection with child sex abuse allegations while his young girlfriend was in the early stages of pregnancy. He is currently serving two 10-year prison sentences for a series of sick crimes against underage girls.

A pal of his former partner - who was in her early 30s - said she had cut all ties with the serial paedophile.

He said: "She had left Dublin and tried to put the past behind her. But in my opinion, she never recovered from the pain and humiliation of what happened to Walsh."