Episode 1271: Kinahan mobster Sean McGovern applies for free legal aid to dodge murder and gang charges

They were the two faces of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger boom, friends who partied hard with pretty models and had champagne by the bucket-load.Jim Mansfield Jnr and Marcus Sweeney mixed with high society and graced the celebrity gossip columns, but both hid dark secrets that have left them fighting for their reputations.As Mansfield Jnr tastes freedom for the first time since he was jailed in Portlaoise Prison for perverting the course of justice, and as Sweeney takes to social media after a damaging CAB case saw him linked to the notorious criminal gang 'The Family', Crime World chats with the journalist who has met both and asked them the hard questions.Nicola Tallant and Niall Donald, along with the Sunday Independent’s Niamh Horan, discuss the highs and lows of Ireland’s one-time elite playboys and their spectacular falls from grace. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 Mars 202355min

A car has emerged as a key piece of evidence in the attempted murder of PSNI Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell after football training in Omaha last week - a callous shooting which has shocked all Ireland.The second hand Fiesta purchased in a private sale on February 8th was hidden in Belfast and then used by the gunmen who sprayed bullets at the officer after a training session for teenagers.Nicola Tallant speaks to Belfast Telegraph Crime Correspondent Allison Morris about the recruitment of young men into the New IRA which had been deemed a reduced terror threat in Northern Ireland before the attack.We discuss the group’s motive to kill, its use of propaganda and it’s intent to make policing Northern Ireland a thankless job. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 Mars 202331min

Italian mob boss Raffaele Imperiale spent years living it up in Dubai and doing business with members of the so-called Super Cartel including Dutch drug baron Ridouan Taghi and Daniel Kinahan.But police hacks into encrypted phone networks made a bullet proof case against him for the Italians and now he has decided to co-operate to reduce his term in prison there.But what will Imperiale say and how many of Europe’s top crime bosses can he implicate?Dr Anna Sergi, an Organised Crime Professor at the University of Essex, has read the prosecution files against Imperiale and she says that while they concentrate on huge movements of cocaine into Italy and the Netherlands they also mention an Irish business partnership focussed on Rotterdam port.Nicola Tallant speaks to Dr Sergi about Imperiale and the threat he now poses to a litany of top tier drug gangs across the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

28 Feb 202332min

It’s the case that is fascinating America. A multi millionaire lawyer from a prominent legal dynasty reports finding his wife and son dead on the grounds of their isolated hunting lodge. Both have been shot. A police investigation finds him the suspect and a web of lies, fraud and deceit unravels as famous South Carolina personal injury attorney Alex Murdaugh is charged with the murders.Nicola speaks with crime journalist Brad Hunter about the incredible chain of events that officials say led to the Murdaugh family murders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

27 Feb 202327min

DUBLIN was a city of grinding poverty, mass unemployment and a never-ending queue of young people seeking a future abroad when the heroin epidemic hit with catastrophic force.Later, as the city transformed in the 1990s into a vibrant capital, ecstasy took over as the drug of choice and, later, a cocaine goldrush followed.But, as street dealers became millionaires during five decades of drug abuse, what happened to those caught up in the party?This week, as Sky Documentaries begins its Dublin Narco series, we chat with two people who became part of that incredible story.Jessica Wade went from ecstasy dealer to chronic addict and drug mule, only to get sober and devote her life to working in addiction services. While one of the city’s first heroin users, Paul Tracey, spent 37 years on the drug before finally getting clean.Nicola Tallant and Niall Donald chat with Jessica and Paul, who will both appear on the series to be screened from March 4, about their own real-life experiences and their journeys to recovery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

25 Feb 20231h 15min

He was the shadowy Cartel lieutenant who was rumoured to be out to get UFC star Conor McGregor after a pub brawl at the height of the Kinahan and Hutch feud.But convicted drug dealer Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan was this week welcomed into McGregor’s pub and into this family when he was introduced as the new partner of the sports stars sister Aoife.Nicola Tallant talks to Niall Donald about Conor McGregor and the mob and the childhood friendships which link the world famous fighter with some of the most prominent gangland figures in Ireland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

23 Feb 202329min

HE was a terrifying gangland mob boss who ran his empire from a gated compound in County Meath, where he is alleged to have held slaves and forced them to do his bidding.Amongst a litany of terrible crimes, he is suspected of murdering a young man and his pregnant girlfriend, cremating their bodies and then directing a campaign of intimidation on their grieving families.When he made a smug 'selfie' video to celebrate the gruesome killing of gangland hardman Robbie Lawlor, Price almost claimed the credit for the murder.But the tables would turn on the 41-year-old thug, and this week he died in a Welsh hospital after suffering a catastrophic brain illness.Nicola Tallant talks with Niall Donald about the claims that Price became a born-again Christian before he died, about denials from the model Katie Price that they were related and about the hell-raising career of one of Ireland’s most feared killers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

22 Feb 202335min

BRITISH drug baron Robert Dawes became known as the pathfinder for a generation of criminals, including the Kinahan Cartel, when he was one of the first to make Dubai his home and the headquarters of his trans-global empire.Ancient money transfer systems, a blind eye to suitcases of cash and easily attained residential permits all added to the attraction of the United Arab Emirates for Dawes and the countless other drug dealers that followed him to the Gulf paradiseBut the 55-year-old has found that not everything is fool-proof and that the past can have a sneaky way of creeping up on you.Nicola Tallant chats with journalist and author Carl Fellstrom about the incredible story of Dawes, who is now standing trial in a French court along with his lawyers, who say he tricked them into producing a false document to a drugs trial. Jailed for 22 years for cocaine smuggling, he now faces further imprisonment in France while authorities in the Netherlands are now lining up to try him for murder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

21 Feb 202349min