Major garda reshuffle to bring new bosses for gang crime and Dublin

After the replacement in December of the current Policing Authority, there will be a competition for the Garda Commissioner job in order to have someone in place before Drew Harris retires in June

Angela Willis has considerable experience in her 34-year career. File photo: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

In a major reshuffle of garda top brass, the current policing boss of Dublin is due to head up the force’s organised crime section and the commander of the Eastern region is set to replace her in the capital, the Irish Examiner understands.

The shake-up is expected to be announced later in the week and follows the promotion of Justin Kelly from the rank of assistant commissioner to deputy commissioner earlier this month.

Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis, currently in charge of the Dublin Metropolitan Region, is expected to take over at Organised and Serious Crime (OSC), where Mr Kelly was. This is considered a highly sought-after post in the organisation, given its role in tackling the country’s biggest gangs.

It is thought that Assistant Commissioner Paul Cleary, responsible for the Eastern Region, will be transferred to the Dublin job.

It is further expected that Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman, in charge of Roads Policing and Community Engagement, will “double job” and cover the Eastern Region until a new competition is held.

That process could take a number of months, possibly up to January — an issue complicated by the replacement in December of the current Policing Authority, which runs the competitions through Public Jobs, with a new Policing and Community Safety Authority.

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After that competition is run, there will be a competition for the Garda Commissioner job in order to have someone in place before Drew Harris retires in June.

There are eight assistant commissioners, with four regional positions (DMR, Eastern, Southern, North Western) and four specialist positions (OSC, Security & Intelligence, Governance and Roads Policing).

Ms Willis has considerable experience in her 34-year career. She was appointed to Dublin in May 2022, where she set up a new regional unit — the Dublin Crime Response Team — and oversaw the policing response to anti-migrant and far-right protests.

Prior to that, she was the AC North Western Region and Detective Chief Superintendent in Drugs and Organised Crime, the Garda National Technical Bureau and the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

OSC covers all the specialist crime bureaus, such as drugs, sexual violence, fraud, cybercrime, immigration, serious investigations, technical bureau and cold cases.

Kinahan cartel

Mr Kelly took over OSC in May 2022 from John O’Driscoll, who recently passed away, and built on his predecessor's work in developing an international coalition — including the US, UK, Spain and later the UAE — to target the Kinahan cartel.

That has developed into the recent arrest of Sean McGovern, Daniel Kinahan’s right-hand man, in Dubai on foot of an extradition request from Ireland and the separate arrest of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch in Spain in a money laundering operation involving Gardaí.

AC Cleary previously headed the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, and led the investigation into the Conti gang behind the HSE attack, as well as the Technical and Roads bureaux.

As a detective superintendent in Dublin he looked after CHIS, or confidential informants, and as a detective sergeant in Kevin Street he drove operations targeting local drug gangs, including those linked to the Kinahan cartel.