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.