Lack of garda strategy to tackle organised crime - report

An Garda Síochána has been accused by the Garda Inspectorate of not having a strategy to deal with organised crime or transnational organised crime.

The Inspectorate has also said many members of organised crime groups continue to run their criminal enterprise from prison.

In a report, the Inspectorate found there were also delays in implementing a national intelligence model and incomplete crime data, making it difficult to tackle organised crime.

The Inspectorate, which is being abolished, has also described the process for assessing critical evidence from other countries as "slow and bureaucratic", and says some partner agencies have been "frustrated" with the reluctance of gardaí to share information.

It says many officers investigating serious crime "lacked training in core investigative skills".

The Inspectorate also says the gardaí need a policy for undercover deployments to enable it to use the full range of covert policing tactics, but also found "some compliance issues" with the use of informants or "covert human intelligence sources".

The report entitled 'Transnational Organised Crime - A review of the structures, strategies and process in the Garda Síochána' does, however, accept the force has "a strong international presence" through its liaison officers.

The report comes a week after the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau handed over more than €3m of criminal assets to the State.

The bureau also seized over €15m worth of cocaine, cannabis and heroin, as well as €350,000 and cryptocurrency following the infiltration in September of the international 'Ghost' criminal communications network.

27 premises, including the homes of some of the most senior organised crime figures in Ireland, were searched and two cryptocurrency keys, 27 laptops, 126 other mobile devices, 200 SIM cards, six Rolex watches and a 2021 Range Rover were recovered.

153 other mobile phones were seized along with the 42 Ghost devices.

81 members of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group have also been convicted and jailed, 51 lives have been saved, millions of Euro worth of drugs and thousands of firearms and ammunition have been seized.

The Criminal Assets Bureau seized almost €10m of criminal assets and transferred more than €8.5m to the Exchequer.

The number of gangland murders has also dropped dramatically in recent years and there hasn’t been a Hutch/Kinahan feud murder in almost seven years.

The Garda Inspectorate says it acknowledges "the considerable success the Garda Síochána has had" in targeting high profile crime groups and seizing large volumes of drugs and other criminal assets but insists "disruption is often temporary and does not address the harmful effects on individuals and communities."

It makes 68 recommendations to the gardaí, the Department of Justice and other agencies to address the threat posed by organised crime networks .

These include recommendations that the gardaí enhance the "organised crime threat assessment tool", develop an all-island approach to transnational organised crime and implement the National Criminal Intelligence Framework "as a matter of urgency."

The Inspectorate says the Department of Justice should establish a National Crime Centre to deliver collaboration between the agencies and expedite its review of the law to ensure that Irish law enforcement agencies have sufficient powers to investigate encrypted and open digital platforms.

It also recommends that the Department of Justice introduce legislation, authority and oversight required to enable registered Covert Human Intelligence Sources to participate in crime.

This it says would require enabling legislation and appropriate safeguards to be put in place.

This is the last report from the Garda Inspectorate which is due to be dissolved along with the Policing Authority and its functions merged into the new Policing and Community Safety Authority under the chair of Dr Elaine Byrne, the head of the Policing Authority.