GARDAI FUNDED DRUGS FOUND IN DONEGAL PREMISES, INQUIRY TOLD

A Donegal business-woman has told the Carty Inquiry that she was given
pounds 400 by members of the Garda to buy illegal drugs and told to plant
them in a building whose owner was subsequently prosecuted.

The woman has told members of the Carty team, which is investigating
alleged Garda corruption in the north west division, that she was told by
an officer to buy the drugs at a specific location eight years ago.

She has claimed that she returned with the drugs to a garda squad car and
gave them over to the officer who was accompanied by two other members of
the force.

She has claimed that the gardai then divided up the drugs into smaller
packs or 'deals' which she was then told to plant in the target building.

The woman has also made a detailed statement concerning her role in the
staged manufacture and transport of ground up fertiliser of the type used
in IRA bombs and which was left at various locations in Donegal some years
ago. The "hoax bombs" are also being probed by the inquiry.

Members of the corruption inquiry team, which is headed by assistant
commissioner, Kevin Carty, have passed on details of her extraordinary
claims in a report to the DPP.

The Carty team has been making a very careful assessment of the claims made
by the woman, The Sunday Business Post has learned.

Another woman has provided documents to the Carty team which may also shed
some light on the prosecution of the drugs case.

A diary, copy extracts from which have been seen by The Sunday Business
Post, and allegedly prepared by a member of the Garda, uses the words "set
up" in connection with the matter.

The revelations from the two witnesses could seriously undermine the basis
for the conviction obtained in the drugs case.

The Carty Inquiry is the most widespread probe mounted in the history of
the force. It was triggered by a series of allegations made in unrelated
matters by the Donegal publican Frank McBrearty and members of his family
about their alleged treatment at the hands of the force.

The inquiry has been conducted over a period of months in Donegal, Dublin
and elsewhere, amid conflicting reports as to whether or not charges will
be brought as a result of its findings.

Fine Gael TD Jim Higgins has said that in the Dail this week he will repeat
his call on the Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, to establish an
independent public inquiry into garda corruption in Donegal.