Episode 8: Criminal gangs targeting online dating sites as millions look for love online in 2021

It’s a missing-person’s case that has cast a dark shadow over a small town in County Mayo where the haunting face of Sandra Collins stares out from posters more than 20 years since she was last seen.However, Sandra has not been forgotten despite the passage of time. Her brother and sister still hope that they can one day lay her to rest and find their own peace from the nightmare of her mystery disappearance.Sandra had just found out she was pregnant on the night she was last seen buying chips from a takeaway in Killala.Today, Bridie Conway and Patrick Collins remember their fun-loving sister and recall her lonely life caring for an elderly aunt in a small town of secrets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

24 Juli 202133min

He headed up one side of two notorious feuding gangs that claimed 15 lives in 10 years in Ireland’s first cocaine war.And even behind bars Brian Rattigan organised assassinations, drug deals and terrorised communities with his fearsome reputation.Now, as he prepares for release from jail, claims that he is a changed man who has made peace with his arch enemy are being taken with a grain of salt and Gardai have already drawn up a policing plan.Today I’m talking to Irish Independent crime correspondent, Ken Foy, who says the jury is out on what Brian Rattigan will do next amidst fears that tensions will rise in the organised crime landscape. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

23 Juli 202125min

A half tonne of cocaine disguised as charcoal, which landed in Rotterdam, was seized at the port after an intelligence-led operation headed up by Irish gardai.The drugs, worth more than €30 million, were destined for the Irish market where a generation of young and educated cocaine users are directly funding violent drug cartels who are getting filthy rich and ever more powerful.So how does a half-tonne seizure affect the millionaire cocaine bosses and how can we ebb the tide of white powder flooding Europe?This week, I’m talking to Michael O’Sullivan, the former garda who is the chief executive of the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre in Lisbon.He co-ordinates the efforts of seven countries: Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Portugal and the UK in tackling maritime drug smuggling in Europe.He tells me how seizures of the ‘mother-load’ can damage even the biggest organised crime gangs, how Colombian Cartels have power bases in Rotterdam and Amsterdam to bribe and intimidate port staff and how a young generation of Irish high-flyers are making narco terrorists rich beyond their wildest dreams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

22 Juli 202130min

A half tonne of cocaine disguised as charcoal which landed in Rotterdam was seized at the port after an intelligence-led operation headed up by Irish gardai.The drugs worth more than €30 million were destined for the Irish market where a generation of young and educated cocaine users are directly funding violent drug cartels who are getting filthy rich and ever more powerful.So how does a half tonne seizure affect the millionaire cocaine bosses and how can we ebb the tide of white powder flooding Europe.Today, I’m talking to Michael O’Sullivan, the former garda who is the chief executive of the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre in Lisbon. There he co-ordinates the efforts of seven countries: Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK in tackling maritime drug smuggling in Europe.He tells me how seizures of the ‘motherload’ can damage even the biggest organised crime gangs, how Colombian Cartels have power bases in Rotterdam and Amsterdam to bribe and intimidate port staff and how a young generation of Irish high flyers are making narco terrorists rich beyond their wildest dreams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

21 Juli 202130min

It’s a tale made for the big screen – a Hollywood starlet threatening to expose an illicit love affair, a missing diary revealing a web of intrigue from a president to a mafia boss and secret police files that could hold the truth of one of the greatest cover-ups in modern history.Now, a former Los Angeles policeman says he knows just what happened the night Marilyn Monroe died. It’s a story that Mike Rothmiller has kept safe for years, afraid of reprisals in light of his allegations that tie former US attorney general Bobby Kennedy to murder.Here, Nicola Tallant chats with Mike Rothmiller, who has co-authored a sensational new book Bombshell: The night Bobby Kennedy Killed Marilyn Monroe, about his claims that the world's most-famous blonde was poisoned to protect a dynasty.He tells me how he stumbled upon intelligence files relating to the case when he was working in organised crime back in the 1980s. He reveals how he pursued his own investigation into a cover-up and garnered a confession from a major Hollywood actor about the events of that night. And he says that as he pieced together evidence that directly linked Bobby Kennedy to Marilyn’s death, he was ambushed in a mob-style assassination which silenced him until now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17 Juli 202149min

Dutch crime reporter Peter R. De Vries died in hospital yesterday, a week after he was shot on a busy Amsterdam street in an attack which has drawn outrage across Europe. As his family and friends mourn his loss, police are focusing on the advisory role he was playing to state witness Nabil B, the underworld crime figure set to give evidence against his one-time gang boss Ridouan Taghi.Taghi, an associate of Daniel Kinahan, is already suspected of being behind the murder of Nabil B’s innocent brother and that of his lawyer Derk Wiersum, a father of two young children who was gunned down on the doorstep of his home in 2019.This week, as De Vries still clung to life, Nicola Tallant spoke with with De Telegraaf journalist Saskia Belleman, who worked along side the celebrity journalist and who saw him only days before he was shot.Saskia reveals the types of criminals who carry out these horrendous acts of narco-terrorism, the disconnect they have with their victims and the long-term effects the murder of De Vries will have on Taghi’s trial. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

16 Juli 202116min

It’s just three years since a hitman attempted to murder gang boss Owen Maguire, leaving him paralysed and dividing a town’s underworld into two feuding sides intent on wiping each other out.Since then, six assassination attempts, four brutal murders - including the torture and dismemberment of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods - and a huge garda effort to protect the local community has turned Drogheda into a town under siege from organised crime.So why has such an explosion of violence happened in an ordinary commuter town?Nicola Tallant chats with Irish Independent Crime Correspondent Ken Foy about the origins of the Drogheda feud, the murder probes which have netted some key players, the social media taunts which have deepened the hatred between the rival sides and the fears that a new generation is now rising from the ashes of war. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

15 Juli 202127min

It may seem like a simple solution to the war on drugs – legalise weed and cocaine, regulate the market and then tax the profits.This week, 100 youth workers in Ireland joined forces against prohibition and are calling for just that. But is such dramatic change practical and what are the pitfalls when it comes to legalising drugs?Do our youth workers really want Ireland to radicalise that much or are they just desperate for us to start recognising the inequalities in our society that lie at the heart our lost generations of young people.Nicola Tallant is joined by youth worker Eddie D’Arcy and criminologist Trina O’Connor, who have both been on the front line of the drugs war and have worked with young offenders, disadvantaged communities and vulnerable kids for decades. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10 Juli 202142min