Recordings ‘needed to prosecute’

GARDAI would be able to prosecute more crime bosses if they were allowed to use evidence from electronic surveillance in court, senior officers said yesterday.

“If we really want to get the main people, we need to go a step further and allow electronic surveillance be accepted in court,” said one senior officer.

“It’s very difficult to link the top men with drug seizures apart from surveillance information. That’s why there are very few conspiracy charges and the people we tend to get are the couriers.”