Crime World

Emer O'Loughlin (23) had her whole life ahead of her when she was brutally murdered in a mobile home in Galway in 2005. She had just finished a year-long trip across the world with her boyfriend Shane and they were living in caravan site while they saved money. But on April 8 2005, Shane received a call to say that the mobile home next to theirs, owned by a man named John Griffin, was on fire. Human remains were subsequently found in the burnt wreckage of the caravan and DNA tests confirmed Emer's family's worst fears, that she had died in the blaze. A post-mortem was unable to determine her cause of death and it was not until 2010, after her body was exhumed, that it was discovered that Emer had suffered a violent death before the fire. Today, I’m joined by April Keogh, whose new documentary on TG4 about Emer, explains how her family's lives changed forever the night she was murdered.

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Keeping the peace inside Ireland's prison system has never been easy - but the fall of the Kinahan cartel has made life behind bars more dangerous than ever.According to prison officials, there are currently a total of 166 inmates from 14 separate criminal mobs jailed in prisons across the country. However, prison insiders claim that the lines between the different gangs have become so blurred, with the influence of the Kinahan cartel so all pervasive, that the traditional divides can no longer be said to apply.Five prisons, in particular, house the majority of the country’s most notorious gangland criminals.These are: Mountjoy, Portlaoise, Wheatfield, Castlerea and Limerick.Today, I’m joined by Sunday World Deputy Editor Niall Donald to look at how the Prison Service are keeping Ireland's most notorious gangsters under control while behind bars.

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THE American government has KO’d the Kinahan Cartel with a raft of sanctions that have caused chaos for the mob.But when did the name Kinahan start coming on the radar in the United States and was it the mob's brazen move into top-end boxing that sealed their fate?As Tyson Fury prepares to step into the ring at Wembley Stadium to defend his WBC heavyweight title amid a storm of controversy, Nicola Tallant chats with Jake Donovan, senior writer of BoxingScene.com.He describes how Daniel Kinahan managed to gain a foothold at the very top of U.S. boxing while American law enforcement sought to bring down his family mafia. We discuss the delay the sport and its watchdogs to protect itself from organised crime and we consider the millions of dollars that washes around promoters, managers and even crime bosses each time a punch is thrown.

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The 'Dead Zoo' is the name the famous Dublin ‘wits’ came up with for the Natural History Museum in the capital.The quirky Victorian-era institution is packed with stuffed exotic animals from around the world – a moose, a hippo, a giraffe, a rhinoceros and a lot more. The 'Dead Zoo Gang' is the name the Sunday World gave the Irish criminals who started buying or stealing rhino horns all over the world. From the Rockies in Denver, Colorado, to auction rooms in Sydney, Australia, the gang spent more than a decade supplying the illegal trade in rhino horns. With buyers in China and Vietnam willing to spend €20,000 and more per kilo, the Irish mob found a way to go big-game hunting without using guns. This is the story, written by Eamon Dillon, of the 'Dead Zoo Gang' and one of the world’s most bizarre crime sprees.

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He was Crime World’s first guest, when the former Scotland Yard detective told us about two gangland murders, a missing fugitive and his quest to find the elusive Kevin Parle.Now, Peter Bleksley reveals the details of his ongoing hunt for Parle and how he now believes he may have been in Ireland and could have an Irish girlfriend.The celebrated podcaster, whose 'Manhunt' series is one of the BBC’s top shows, hasn’t let Covid or the passage of time get between him and his folly, and today he tells Nicola Tallant how he is as determined as ever to find Britain's most-wanted man.

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He is the Scottish politician who says football is contaminated with drug money and that the tentacles of the Kinahan organisation run deep into the heart of the Glasgow underworld.And Russell Findlay knows more than the regular politician about such issues, because for years he worked as an investigative crime reporter who himself became headline news when he was targeted in an acid attack at his home.Nicola Tallant chats with Russell about the deep connections and blood bonds between the Irish and Scottish crime networks.He reveals the killers and criminals who hid out for years in Kinahan safe houses on the Costa del Sol, about the fake-bake tan tycoon who became part of their inner circle and his fears that mobsters and gang bosses have their sights firmly set on football.

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In 2010, Spanish police announced that they had dismantled the Irish Mafia by shutting down the Kinahan Organised Crime Group.Headed by Christopher Kinahan Snr and managed by his sons Daniel and Christopher Jnr the so-called ‘Cartel’ was estimated to be worth €100 million when it was hit with the killer blow by cops who had spent two years wire-tapping the gang and keeping them under close surveillance.But the scenario sounds all too familiar now and 12 years on the Kinahans are not only still in business, but ten times bigger than they ever were. So what went wrong?Today I’m joined by journalist and author Stephen Breen whose book, 'The Cartel', details the surveillance and wire-tap probe by the Spanish which failed to take the head from the snake.

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Two gangsters have been convicted in the first murder plot trial involving EncroChat phones, a system described in court as ‘an Amazon for organised criminals’.Despite no DNA evidence, no fingerprints and no weapon, the court found that Paul Fontaine and Frankie Sinclair tried to organise a 'hit' by text.At least 260 other cases in the UK have been successfully convicted since the 'hack' by French and Dutch police in 2020, described as a ‘game changer’ for law enforcement.But why are lawyers from across Europe now writing to the EU Parliament to complain on behalf of their clients and what are the likelihood of some appeals?Nicola Tallant chats with journalist Chris Sommers about the Fontaine-Sinclair case and the raft of criminals caught up in the EncroChat net.

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One month since US sanctions were levelled against the Kinahan Cartel and as the dust settles on the dramatic announcements, what exactly has changed for those named and shamed as targets?What exactly does it even mean to be sanctioned and who else is on the list compiled by America’s most powerful?Nicola Tallant talks with journalist Eamon Dillon about the intricacies of a financial circuit breaker, about the growing indications that the Kinahans could be indicted in the US and about the terrorists and narco bosses that they have joined on the toxic list of shame.

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FOR decades, the Troubles in Northern Ireland set the news agenda, engulfed the resources of crime fighting and left thousands of families traumatised.But there were other murders too, many of which journalist Allison Morris believes didn’t get the full attention of police because of the war that raged throughout the province, and because some of the victims simple were not high profile enough.Nicola Tallant is joined by Allison, who recalls the stories of 24-year-old Lisa Dorrian and others like her whose cold cases could now be solved.

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