Crime World

Two gangsters have been convicted in the first murder plot trial involving EncroChat phones, a system described in court as ‘an Amazon for organised criminals’. Despite no DNA evidence, no fingerprints and no weapon, the court found that Paul Fontaine and Frankie Sinclair tried to organise a 'hit' by text. At least 260 other cases in the UK have been successfully convicted since the 'hack' by French and Dutch police in 2020, described as a ‘game changer’ for law enforcement. But why are lawyers from across Europe now writing to the EU Parliament to complain on behalf of their clients and what are the likelihood of some appeals? Nicola Tallant chats with journalist Chris Sommers about the Fontaine-Sinclair case and the raft of criminals caught up in the EncroChat net. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One month since US sanctions were levelled against the Kinahan Cartel and as the dust settles on the dramatic announcements, what exactly has changed for those named and shamed as targets? What exactly does it even mean to be sanctioned and who else is on the list compiled by America’s most powerful? Nicola Tallant talks with journalist Eamon Dillon about the intricacies of a financial circuit breaker, about the growing indications that the Kinahans could be indicted in the US and about the terrorists and narco bosses that they have joined on the toxic list of shame. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

FOR decades, the Troubles in Northern Ireland set the news agenda, engulfed the resources of crime fighting and left thousands of families traumatised. But there were other murders too, many of which journalist Allison Morris believes didn’t get the full attention of police because of the war that raged throughout the province, and because some of the victims simple were not high profile enough. Nicola Tallant is joined by Allison, who recalls the stories of 24-year-old Lisa Dorrian and others like her whose cold cases could now be solved. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Lithuanian gang who flew unwitting slaves into Ireland to sell heroin and then starved and beat them sounds like the plot from a TV crime drama – but that’s exactly what happened over the course of 15 years until Gardai, the PSNI and their Eastern European counterparts uncovered the mob. Known as ‘The Russians’, the gang fuelled Northern Ireland’s emerging heroin market from the mid 2000s and later placed agents in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Kerry after being run out of Dublin by bigger gangs. Nicola Tallant talks with journalist Paulie Doyle, who followed the trail of gang leader Kestutis Klemauskas and his violent lieutenants from Lithuania into the heart of loyalist Belfast and onwards to the big cities of Ireland where they pocketed a fortune from the slave dealers. In a lengthy investigation for Vice World News and working with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, he drew together the pieces of a story that make for an incredible insight into organised crime in a modern world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For years flash Johnny Morrissey has been splashing his cash on the Costa del Crime, where his luxury villa is a monument to the Roman Emperor Nero. Larger than life, Morrissey thought he was untouchable - but now that he has been named as the Kinahan mafia’s Costa enforcer and sanctioned by U.S. for laundering dirty money, the vodka boss has been running for cover. But Morrissey is no newcomer to the underworld scene and he has run away before, including from a fishing village in rural Ireland where he tried to land shipments of cocaine on the Cork coastline. Nicola Tallant talks with Sunday World journalist Eamon Dillon about the incredible life and crimes of the Kinahan crony who Irish neighbours dubbed 'Johnny Cash'. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.