NEW WAVE OF VIOLENT CRIMINALS OPERATING IN HOLLAND

Irish drug-dealers in the Netherlands are now encountering competition
from a new wave of very violent organised criminals, mostly from
eastern Europe, writes Jim Cusack

The deaths of Irish nationals in drugs-related murders are beginning
to figure among official Dutch government statistics. In the past two
months four Irish men have been shot dead in the Netherlands,
representing about 2 per cent of the annual rate of crime-related murders.

The Dutch say the crime-related homicide rate is 1.2 per 100,000 of
population, or about 190 per year. In this State last year there were
14 crime-related murders or 0.4 per 100,000. The Republic's low level
of serious crime is shown in comparison with the US rate of around
eight murders per 100,000.

Some South American countries, particularly those like Colombia that
are beset by drug-related crime, have murder rates of between 30 and
50 per 100,000 of population.

Still, the killing of Derek Dunne in Amsterdam at the weekend and the
three other young Irish men near The Hague a month ago show that Irish
criminals in the Netherlands are coming under increased pressure from
two sides: from successful joint operations between Dutch police and
the Garda and from stiff competition from a new wave of eastern
European organised criminals who have been arriving in the country in
numbers since the end of the Balkans conflict.

According to a report on organised crime drawn up by the European
police intelligence and liaison agency, Europol, the Netherlands has a
serious problem with drug-importing and exporting gangs. Rotterdam, as
the largest port in the world, and its surrounding cities have
attracted major drug gangs. The Dutch reckon gangs from 39 countries
are operating on their territory, attracted by liberal immigration and
drugs laws.

Dunne was possibly the Republic's main heroin-supplier, buying drugs
from intermediaries in Amsterdam who, in turn, bought from Turkish
wholesale suppliers.

Dunne and his associates in Amsterdam sold heroin of quite high purity
in batches of a half-kilo upwards to the Dublin-based dealers. A
half-kilo cost the Dublin dealers around pounds 30,000 and a kilo
pounds 50,000. The drug was then diluted and sold at an eventual
"street" price of maybe 10 times this amount.

Dunne would have been in a position to supply much larger
consignments, but sending heroin in half-kilo to two-kilo amounts
reduces the risk of large-scale losses. One of Dunne's couriers was
arrested 18 months ago after he had been noticed travelling to
Amsterdam every week for months. He had a kilo of heroin when Customs
officers arrested him.

Large-scale middlemen, who are aware of their domestic markets, have
dropped prices in recent years to ensure potential addicts are not put
off by the price. In Dublin heroin has fallen to around half the price
it was selling for a decade ago. This has contributed to the
continuing rise in addiction cases in the city in recent years despite
the efforts by the health and justice authorities.

Dunne and his associates, however, have been the target of a string of
joint operations by the Garda National Drug Unit and the Dutch
anti-drugs police, who have developed a very close working
relationship.

Several batches of heroin Dunne sent to Dublin in the past year had
been seized. A half-kilo seized at Dublin Airport last year, bound for
a heroin-dealer in Ballyfermot, is thought to have come from Dunne. As
a result of that seizure two young couriers, Darren Carey and Patrick
Murray, were murdered just before New Year and their bodies dumped in
the Grand Canal.

There have been at least two other heroin seizures at the airport
since, and Customs and gardai have made several arrests.

The apparent success of police action against Dunne may have been
causing difficulties for him and his associates. Local reports say the
group that arrived at his home in the Amsterdam suburbs early on
Saturday may have included a Yugoslav.

According to Dutch police the Yugoslavs, who have been increasingly
involved in drugs and other forms of organised crime in the
Netherlands, are more likely than most other groups to engage in
violence and the use of firearms. They tend to work alongside or for
Dutch drug-dealers and are often used by the Dutch criminals for
assassinations and other reprisals against competitors in the trade.

It was also reported that the three young Irish men who were tortured
and killed in Scheveningen on April 29th were also in dispute with
Dutch and Yugoslav criminals. Two men have been arrested in connection
with these killings. It is believed the three were murdered, possibly
by Yugoslavs working for a Dutch criminal, because one of them was
suspected of passing information to the police.

It is believed he was blamed for passing information which led to the
seizure in March of pounds 8 million worth of ecstasy, amphetamine and
cannabis and 15 guns in Amsterdam. The drugs were destined for Britain
and Ireland and the guns might have been destined for dissident
republicans.