Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 Source: Sunday Times (UK) Copyright: 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. Contact: PO Box 496, London E1 9XN, United Kingdom Fax: +44-(0)171-782 5046 Website: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/ A DEADLY BUSINESS Notorious drug dealer Derek Dunne met a bloody end on the streets of Amsterdam. But John Mooney says there are plenty of young Irish criminals ready to take his place Rachel Mitchell was on the phone when the doorbell rang. It was in the early hours of June 3 and she was not expecting visitors. Neither was her husband, Derek Dunne. Mitchell looked through the spyhole in the front door of their ground-floor apartment at 81 Singerstraat in the leafy Amsterdam suburb of Slotervaart. Years of answering the door to police officers with search warrants had taught her to be cautious. But it was not the police - it was a friend of her husband from Liverpool. She unlocked the door and let him in. "I'm sorry," he said, as he was pushed, handcuffed, through the door. Earlier that night, Dunne's friend had been abducted at gunpoint by a group of Dutch cannabis dealers who had been supplied with inferior dope by the Irish criminal. The gang had returned the drugs to Dunne and his associate the previous week. The Irishman had apologised for the quality of his merchandise and replaced it, but the second consignment was no better. Now they wanted their money back. As they entered No 81, the dealers pushed Mitchell aside and demanded that her husband show himself. Hearing the commotion from another room, Dunne grabbed a revolver he kept for emergencies and went to help his wife and two young daughters, Chanice and Demi. Tempers flared when he appeared. Neighbours later reported shouting and screaming, then gunfire. Dunne shot one of the Dutch gang, hitting him in the head and chest. The Irish drug dealer then chased the men into the street where there was an exchange of fire. One of the Dutch gang shot Dunne in the torso, knocking him to the ground. The gang then escaped in a silver Opel Omega, later found burned out on waste ground. Neighbours saw Dunne's Liverpool friend hobble about, having been shot in the leg during the crossfire. He screamed: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I put your family's lives at risk." The Dutch are accustomed to watching Irish criminals settle their differences. In 1996, after the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin, the Criminal Assets Bureau was established with powers to seize the proceeds of crime. Irish criminals emigrated en masse. Now, the class of 1996 is returning - some in handcuffs, some in coffins. "They'll all be back eventually," one senior garda said last week. "They will either be killed or arrested." They return to a changed country, governed by a new class of criminal. The dealers who moved to fill the void they left behind are younger, less predictable, more dangerous and more inclined to use the drugs they sell. ALTHOUGH he was murdered over a cannabis deal, Dunne, 33, specialised in supplying heroin to Dublin and the north of England. He grew up in Alfie Byrne house, a dilapidated estate in Dublin's north inner city, one of 10 children born to Peader and Mary. On leaving school, he played for St Patrick's Athletic football club. Such were Dunne's talents on the pitch that the club honoured him with the nickname Maradona. Gardai investigating Dublin's burgeoning heroin problem also found Dunne talented. Dunne began to peddle "smack" to his peers in early 1990 and soon established a formidable drugs retail and distribution enterprise. In September 1995 he left Dublin after a dispute with the Hutch crime family. One of Gerry Hutch's nephews damaged a car belonging to Dunne. The drug dealer beat him up savagely. The Hutch gang retaliated, firebombing Dunne's home and, a week later, shooting at him in Glasnevin. Realising he had met his match, Dunne moved to the north of England the next week. Within months of his arrival in Liverpool, he had joined the local drugs scene and was under surveillance by the Merseyside Drugs Squad. He was arrested and charged in 1996 with conspiracy to import heroin into Ireland. His first trial collapsed when a British newspaper referred to a notorious Dublin crime family called the Dunnes. At a second trial there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction and Dunne was acquitted. He had claimed he was smuggling fake designer clothing, not drugs - a claim that would have repercussions. After his acquittal, he moved to Holland with Rachel Mitchell, the only daughter of George Mitchell, a convicted armed robber and one of Dublin's biggest crime bosses known as the Penguin. Gardai believe Mitchell has co-ordinated dozens of hijackings, drug-dealing operations, computer chip thefts and extortion rackets. The Penguin was already living in Amsterdam, having left Ireland the previous April in fear of the IRA. According to gardai, George Mitchell and Dunne were only two of up to 100 Irish criminals in the Netherlands. DUNNE was the first drug trafficker tackled by the CAB. On October 23, 1996, Chief Superintendent Fachtna Murphy of the CAB - now the assistant commissioner - applied to the High Court in Dublin to seize IP 53,000 belonging to Dunne, held on deposit in an AIB account in Dublin. Murphy told the court the money was the proceeds of crime and not in line with Dunne's declared income. He pointed out that the former footballer had, under oath in a Liverpool court, admitted his involvement in importing counterfeit clothing into Dublin. Dunne did not fight the forfeiture. Others who departed as the shadow of CAB loomed, included Robert Murphy, a convicted armed robber suspected of importing heroin into Dublin and John Traynor, a convicted criminal who laundered money for drug traffickers. The gangsters ran, but soon realised they could not hide. Some decided to stand and fight. John Gilligan, the alleged drugs trafficker charged with Guerin's murder, was one of the first to challenge the new legislation. His action failed. Another group of individuals - who cannot be named by order of the courts - also challenged the laws but lost their case in the Supreme Court last year. Others took a more direct approach, threatening members of the new bureau. The CAB was undaunted, seizing IP 13m in assets. At the end of 1998, the bureau had issued tax assessments for IP 10,794,598 of which IP 621,749 had been collected. In the same year, it terminated welfare payments to criminals totalling IP 221,474. There is a view among the Irish public that organised crime is on the run. But in the cities drug dealing continues to flourish and new types of opiates are starting to appear. Two weeks ago John O'Donoghue, the justice minister, presented a meeting of European Union justice ministers in Strasbourg with a report on organised crime in Ireland. The document suggested that 13 gangs controlled crime in this country. The majority of these groups were said to generate income from armed robbery, drug trafficking and the theft of computer component parts. Some senior gardai poured scorn on the report. In their opinion, there are dozens of loose groups at work in the republic, but not the structured gangs of old. The scene is fluid and fragmented, with the dealers lacking the discipline imposed by departed crime bosses. "People get involved for short periods, make fast cash, get out, and set themselves up in legitimate businesses," said one officer. "Then there are the career criminals like Derek Dunne. These are making money fast, working the streets, then heading off to Amsterdam or Spain and coordinating business from there. "But what's causing more problems are the people they leave behind to run things on the ground. These are predominantly young single men, who use drugs and have no problem shooting people who get in their way. "We know of one man in his early twenties who has murdered three people and it has not affected him in the slightest," said the garda. "The new generation is proving far more difficult to deal with." While Ireland's most notorious drug traffickers may have left these shores, their influence is still here. Dunne's career may have come to an end, but there remains a host of emigre criminals supplying smaller fish back home. Fish who, unlike mafia bosses of old, have little time for crooked law and order. Box - Prime suspects JOHN GILLIGAN, born in Ballyfermot, worked as a merchant seaman and gained a reputation for stealing from warehouses. After a stint in Portlaoise prison 10 years ago, Gilligan got seriously involved in organised crime. Gardai believe he has handled more than IP 200m worth of cannabis, and is worth IP 15m. He is facing trial over the murder of Veronica Guerin. JOHN TRAYNOR, "the Coach", is originally from Dublin, and later moved to Kildare. He left Ireland soon after the 1996 murder of Guerin, admitting he was a prime suspect. Best known for his IP 2.75m fraud of the tax office; he and an accomplice stole cheques from the collector-general's post box. The CAB secured a large tax bill against him in 1998. GERRY HUTCH, "the Monk", from north Dublin, is believed to have started his criminal career with a gang of young miscreants called the Bugsy Malones, then moved into armed robberies on behalf of the Official IRA. CAB told the High Court last year it believed Hutch was behind the IP 3m Brinks- Allied heist in 1996, and the IP 1.7m van robbery at Marino in 1997. His fortune is estimated at IP 4m; he was recently forced to pay IP 2m to the CAB. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake