Cocaine-fuelled hi-society built on failing states – The Irish Catholic
December 6th, 2007
Did an Irish cabinet minister take cocaine? And if so, who? Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan says the claim is baseless. And now, under Government duress, state broadcaster RTÉ is conducting an internal inquiry into ‘High Society’, the book-derived documentary that ran the allegations.
Even if the substance abuse story has no substance, two separate events last week tell us something more troubling about Ireland’s fascination with cocaine – gossipy titillation aside.
On November 21 two British teenagers were arrested in Ghana, attempting to board a flight to London with around US$600,000 worth of cocaine in laptop bags. If convicted, the two sixteen-year-old girls face three years in an Accra juvenile detention centre.
A day later, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction published its annual report, charting a continent-spanning rise in cocaine abuse and record seizures. According to the EU centre report, Ireland now ranks fifth in the Euro cocaine league.
Ireland’s growing fondness for cocaine feeds not only addiction at home, but the emergence of narco-states in the world’s poorest regions. Latin American drug cartels have been hampered by successful counter-narcotics operations along old transit routes in the Caribbean and Central America. For example, the UK has worked closely with the Ghanaian police on anti-drug operations, on the back of a successful campaign targeting former UK colonies in the Caribbean
The cocaine trade is demand-drive, so traffickers remain undeterred by growing interdiction, seeking new routes and means to access the growing European market. (more…)
Two arrested for McCartney murder -ISN
June 2nd, 2005
DERRY – The British police arrested two men on Wednesday in connection with the January murder of Robert McCartney in Belfast.
A 49-year-old man was detained in Belfast. The other, aged 36, was arrested in Birmingham.
Meanwhile, follow-up searches have been taking place in the Markets area of Belfast, close to where the killing took place.
McCartney was murdered on 31 January outside a pub near the Catholic-nationalist Short Strand enclave in East Belfast.
The murder was blamed on members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), three of whom were expelled after the paramilitary group conducted an internal investigation. (more…)
Seven held in IRA laundering probe – ISN
February 18th, 2005
DERRY – Police in the Irish Republic have arrested seven people as part of an investigation into Irish Republican Army (IRA) money-laundering.
Euro and sterling notes worth a total of €3.6 million were seized in Dublin and Cork, and further police raids were ongoing areas in the midlands and east of the country. One single raid on Thursday morning recovered £2 million (nearly €2.9 million) from a house in rural Cork. Senior detectives from Northern Ireland’s police were in Dublin on Friday for a special security summit with their counterparts in the Republic.
Police believe that some or all of the cash was part of the €38 million taken in the Northern Bank robbery committed in Belfast in late December. It has been confirmed that Northern Bank notes make up some of the cash seized. The robbery was generally attributed to the IRA, and one of those arrested in Cork was a Sinn Féin candidate in the Irish general election in 2002. (more…)
Sinn Féin leader dares govt to arrest him – ISN
February 11th, 2005
DERRY – The Independent Monitoring Commission set up by the Irish and British governments released a report on Thursday, saying that senior Sinn Féin members had advance knowledge of the theft, allegedly by the IRA, of some €31 million from a Belfast bank in December.
Sinn Féin is said to be the political wing of the Irish Republican Army. Both governments have endorsed the findings. In Dublin, Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell said some of the politicians implicated in the report were household names, but the report did not name anyone directly.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams responded by challenging the Irish government to either have him arrested or cease what he termed “unsubstantiated allegations”. (more…)
Robbery blamed on IRA, could derail talks – ISN
January 10th, 2005
DERRY -Politicians and the public in Ireland and the UK have spent the weekend coming to terms with accusations that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was responsible for a massive Belfast bank robbery on 20 December 2004.
Last Friday afternoon, Hugh Orde, Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), stated that he thought that “[…] the Provisional IRA were responsible for this crime and all main lines of inquiry currently undertaken are in that direction’.
Orde was speaking after meeting key members of Northern Ireland’s policing board. Martin McGuinness, Chief Negotiator for Sinn Féin, the political party linked to the IRA, reacted to Orde’s comments by telling press that the IRA had told him that the group had not conducted the robbery, and that these comments were part of a politically-motivated campaign to undermine Sinn Féin and the peace process. (more…)
Police probe IRA robbery link – ISN
December 22nd, 2004
DERRY – Over £20 million (nearly €29 million) was stolen on Monday from a Belfast bank headquarters, in what was one of the largest robberies ever carried out in Ireland or Britain.
Sam Kincaid, Assistant Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), said the robbery “was a well-organized crime”, and “could be paramilitary-related”. Former Special Branch police chief in Northern Ireland, Bill Lowry, told the pro-Unionist daily Newsletter that the Provisional IRA was the most likely suspect. (more…)
Unhappy Prospects for Afghan Security – OCGG
September 1st, 2004
http://www.oxfordgovernance.org/fileadmin/Publications/SB004.pdf
‘The security situation in Afghanistan is volatile, having seriously deteriorated in certain parts of the country. Attacks on national and international forces and on electoral, government and humanitarian workers and their premises in southern Afghanistan have intensified. At the same time, in a disturbing development, several of the most serious acts of violence since the start of the Bonn process took place in the north and west of the country, areas that had been considered low-risk’.
(more…)
