Corrupt gardaí may be protecting drug trafficker, Dáil told

Corrupt gardaí may be protecting a convicted drug trafficker from going to jail, it was claimed today.

Labour TD Pat Rabbitte said under parliamentary privilege in the Dáil that the DPP surprisingly decided not to prosecute Kieran Boylan last July after he was arrested with €1.7m worth of cocaine and heroin.

The case is now the subject of an internal Garda inquiry and a Garda Ombudsman Commission – and Mr Rabbitte demanded to know if Boylan was being protected because he was informer at some level.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern refused to comment specifically on the case in the Dáil but said he was satisfied that informers are handled in the Garda using best policing standards.

Mr Rabbitte claimed in the Dáil that Boylan was “caught red-handed” with a €1.7m cache of cocaine and heroin in Ardee, Co Louth in October 2005.

“Boylan had already been convicted and imprisoned in the UK and in Ireland for serious drug offences,” said the TD.

“He is a major importer of drugs into this country. While on bail he was caught red-handed in Ardee, in the constituency of the present Minister for Justice, with cocaine and heroin valued at €1.7bn.

“Incredibly, the charges related to this seizure were struck out and only re-entered after members of this House raised the issue.”

He added: “On July 31, 2008, the last day of the courts session before the summer recess, although not listed for mention and without notice, a nolle prosequi was entered on behalf of the DPP.

Questioned by the Judge, Senior Counsel for the DPP stated only that 'it is a matter for very, very careful consideration at a high level'.

Mr Rabbitte added: “The only reasonable inference is that Boylan was saved from prison by the intervention of corrupt gardaí or he was protected because he is a Garda informant.”

Justice minister, Mr Ahern said in the Dáil that given the investigations by the Garda and the Garda Ombudsman, it was inappropriate for him to comment.

But on the general issue of informers, he added: “There has been a full review of the handling of informers following the Morris Tribunal reports and a new code of practice encompassing the best police standards in the management and use of informants was put in place throughout the force in 2006.”

Mr Rabbitte told the Dáil drugs have ravaged communities, destroyed young lives, caused the murder of innocent civilians and triggered a spate of gangland killings still under way.

He asked: “How could the prospects of putting a serious drugs criminal behind bars be undermined by a decision at a very high level?”

“Most law abiding citizens will have very great difficulty envisaging what greater good could possibly justify the surreptitious entry of a nolle prosequi in the circumstances described.

“The findings of the GSOC in this case will be a benchmark against which that body will be judged by law abiding citizens for the future.

“If there is an explanation why a man importing poison and death should be exempt from the criminal justice system, we should be told what it is.”

Mr Rabbitte was speaking during a motion to approve the appointment of senior civil servant Dermot Gallagher as chairman of the Garda Ombudsman Commission.