Crime World

A French court has convicted a gang of eight men including four members of the Rathkeale Rovers Organised Crime group for trafficking rhino horn and ivory between Europe and Asia.

But while sentences have been handed down, the Irish traders remain at large and are likely living under aliases, as environmentalist groups urge gardai to track the fugitives down.

So what are criminals doing with rhino horns and elephant tusks and how did the Rathkeale Rovers see a multi-million euro opportunity in an underground criminal enterprise?

Nicola Tallant chats to journalist and author Eamon Dillon, who is an expert on the globe-trotting criminal gang. He tells of the museum heists, ancient medicinal cures and the business savvy traders who are always ahead of the game.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In life they formed a prolific burglary gang that terrorised the country and made use of the motorway system as a getaway route.

Criminals Graham Taylor, Karl Freeman and Dean Maguire died together last July in a horror road crash when the car they were travelling in collided head-on with a lorry as they drove down the wrong side of the N7.

But what is the legacy of the trio and has there been any significant effects on crime figures in the areas they targeted in recent weeks.

Nicola Tallant talks to Irish independent crime correspondent Ken Foy about the life and times of the three notorious mobsters and the plummeting burglary rates since their death.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He suffered a brutal death at the hands of his wife and her former FBI agent dad, but the path to justice for Jason Corbett’s family has been far from clear.

Found guilty by a North Carolina court of second degree murder, Molly and Tom Martens were originally sent to jail but had their convictions overturned by an Appeals Court before the Supreme Court subsequently agreed that the trial had been unfair.

Now, the pair will be tried again and the events around Jason’s death will be played out once more in a courtroom.
But what actually happened on the night he died and just what did the father and daughter admit in the hours after the Irishman’s death?

Investigative journalist Lynne Kelleher’s chats with Nicola Tallant about the 911 call that alerted authorities to the Limerick man's brutal death, they dissect the police interviews with Tom and Molly and examine the toxicology results, autopsy findings and bloody crime scene reports.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They are two of Ireland’s most-dangerous offenders but both have just walked free from jail and are now living amongst communities.

Celyn Eadon stabbed his mother to death and racked up 15 unprovoked assaults while behind bar, where he was treated in the National Violence Reduction Unit at the Midlands Prison. While Anthony Quigley has repeatedly attacked women and has been diagnosed with having a brain injury. Last week, he returned to his native Mitchelstown in Cork where locals live in fear of him.

Nicola Tallant chats with Sunday World journalist Eamon Dillon about the dangerous criminals, the risk they pose to society and how the State can best handle people at the extreme end of personality disorders.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was once a city under siege where ruthless gangs and one notorious family ruled with fear and intimidation. But a massive crackdown on crime, followed by an injection of €300 million in regeneration funds restored Limerick’s reputation as a cosmopolitan modern city.

But like everywhere else, an underworld of crime still exists and last week more than 400 gardai and military personnel staged a series of raids targeting the most significant crime groups in the city.

So who are the gangs and where does the balance of power in gangland lie? Today, I’m talking to Sunday world Deputy Editor, Niall Donald, about the gangs of Limerick, 10 bloody years of mayhem and the slick business approach of the new order.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He’s the art detective who hunts stolen masterpieces and who re-unites works of art with their rightful owners years after they have been looted.

From lost works by artists like Picasso or Warhol to flash designer watches worth more than €100,000, Chris Marinello of Art Recovery International has brought home more than half a billion dollars worth of missing goods over his three decades in the business.

Today, he tells me about his incredible career negotiating with a heady mix of rogue collectors, Nazi thieves and organised criminals looking to wash their dirty money.

We talk daring heists, missing classics and the hunt for James Bond’s Aston Martin.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A UN report released earlier this summer estimates that thousands of ISIS fighters have poured into Afghanistan where Taliban rule may once again provide a breeding ground for extremism. Already a suicide bombing at Kabul airport has raised fears that the terror group is set to make a frightening comeback.

But should we be more concerned about the events in New Zealand last week where a lone wolf ISIS-inspired attacker struck in a supermarket and armed with a knife lashed out at innocent shoppers injuring six, some critically?

Today, I’m talking to crime reporter Jared Savage of the New Zealand Herald about the events at the Lynn Mall shopping centre. He tells me about refugee, Ahamaed Samsudeen, who was radicalised in an armchair in his adopted country and who used New Zealand’s inadequate terrorist laws and media suppression orders to his favour.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The seizure of 20 tonnes of cocaine on board the MSC Gayane at the Packer Marine Terminal in Philadelphia two years ago remains the largest in US customs history.

This month, the eight and final crew member from the boat was sentenced for his role in the operation which planned to land €1 billion worth of coke into Europe.

Behind the scenes lie Balkan drug traffickers linked to the Irish Kinahan organisation and a story of narco trafficking on the high seas that reads like a Hollywood movie.

Today, I’m talking to my colleague, Eamon Dillon, about the incredible tale of the Swiss-owned ship, the daring smuggle that went wrong and the ripple effects of the seizure of the record breaking cocaine haul.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

State witness Joseph O’Callaghan gave up his name and his old life when he gave evidence against gangland killers Brian Kenny and Thomas Hinchon. Following their conviction for the murder of Jonathan O’Reilly, he was given a new identity by An Garda Siochana and moved away never to be heard from again.

Dubbed a ‘rat’ after breaking the sacred underworld code of ‘Omerta’ Joey 'The Lips' and his family were spurned by those who once knew him and considered a common criminal who’d saved his own skin.

But the truth couldn’t have been further from the perception and today what really happened to Joey is told in a bestselling book 'The Witness' and in a podcast The Witness In His Own Words which has stormed the charts.
So what has it been like for Joey to finally have his story heard and how does he feel about Kenny’s imminent release?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He once enjoyed a lifestyle fit for a Sultan in Dubai but now Daniel Kinahan is running scared in his desert bolthole as his €2 million per month mafia wage bill threatens to overwhelm him and turn his own against him.

Cash flow problems, the arrest of his arch enemy, Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, deep within the Spanish territory he once controlled and his increased anxiety that he can trust just one last lieutenant are chipping away at the head of the Kinahan Organised Crime Gang.

This week, I’m talking with Sunday World Deputy Editor, Niall Donald, about the extraordinary rise of Daniel Kinahan and about his paranoid final days of freedom as the authorities move in.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.