McCaffrey - Cocaine wars: Fat Freddie Thompson and the Crumlin/Drimnagh feud

THEY STARTED OUT as most criminals do robbing cars, joyriding and getting involved in petty thieving. They were boyhood friends and neighbours. They had gone to the same primary school, and those that continued in education also ended up in the same secondary school. They were a tight group around ten friends who were fiercely loyal and protective of each other. If you took on one, you took them all on. That was the way it was.

The Crumlin and Drimnagh area towards the end of the 1990s was a tough place. Notorious criminals like The General, Martin Cahill; The Viper, Martin Foley; Seamus Shavo Hogan and Dublins original drug baron, Larry Dunne, all hailed from the area. Crumlin and Drimnagh are often referred to as the home of organised crime in Ireland. Many in the local community treated these old-school gangsters like Robin Hood type figures. The gang looked up to these men, admired their lifestyles and made a vow that one day they would be like them and would have what they had one way or another. Their chance came earlier than they anticipated. In 1996, Sunday Independent journalist Veronica Guerin was murdered at the behest of John Gilligan, the countrys biggest drug importer. An unprecedented wave of public outrage followed, and the government made Gilligan its public enemy number one. A massive Garda investigation put Gilligan and his gang out of business, and almost overnight a major vacuum developed in Dublins gangland. The gang had started working for John Gilligan a few years before his downfall and had started to move up the drug-dealing ladder. With Gilligan permanently out of the way, the young and eager gang was perfectly posititoned to take over, and did so with gusto. The gang developed contacts with two Irish expatriates in Spain and then with contacts further afield. They built up a supply line and began importing millions of euro worth of cocaine, heroin and ecstasy into the capital. As sweeteners, and to show their appreciation to the gang for its business, the foreign suppliers threw in dozens of high-powered weapons with each shipment. The mob began to make tens of thousands of euro each week dealing drugs, and had soon conquered the market around Crumlin, Drimnagh and Dublins south inner city. The future seemed bright, but a petty squabble saw the gang permanently disintegrate with deadly results.