Dublin’s First Heroin Baron
The Story
A retired Assistant Commissioner shares his experience of how, in 1982, he became the first detective to be sent undercover in the fight against drug crime. His investigations led to a four year game of cat and mouse, as he set out to bring down Ireland’s first ever heroin baron, Larry Dunne.
The Detective
Today, Michael O’Sullivan is a retired Assistant Commissioner with An Garda Siochana, one of the ten most senior officers in the organisation.
In 1982, he was a young detective about to embark on what, for Ireland, was an entirely new type of policing operation. Michael was sent undercover to infiltrate the drug dealing operation of the country’s first ever drugs baron.
In this episode of The Case I Can’t Forget, he tells the extraordinary inside story of this groundbreaking investigation, and explains how the case stuck with him for the rest of his career.
The Crime
In the early 1980’s a new narcotic hit the streets of Dublin for the very first time. Heroin.
Neither the gardaí nor the communities where the drug is sold were prepared for the consequences. Within months, the capital was in the grip of a heroin epidemic.
In this episode, a cast of dynamic characters who lived through that era, describe how stable working class neighbourhoods were torn apart within a matter of months.
Children as young as 12 are recruited as dealers.
Young men and women, newly addicted to heroin, now steal from their own parents and grandparents, to pay for their habit.
Inner city flat complexes are turned into drug dealing fortresses, impenetrable to gardaí.
The Criminal
The man responsible for this chaos is Larry Dunne – a professional criminal from a family of professional criminals. His background is in bank robberies. But a garda crackdown on such crimes forced Dunne to look for another opportunity.
He found it on the other side of the world, where a revolution in Iran and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, led to Europe being flooded with heroin.
Dunne took his chance and established Ireland’s first organised heroin import operation.
He recruited dealers across inner city Dublin. Within months, he established himself as the godfather of the Irish drug trade. He becomes an unmissable figure, as he is chauffeured through his working class neighbourhood in a Rolls Royce.
This is the man Michael O’Sullivan had to put behind bars.
The Investigation
Michael’s job was to pose as a drug user, infiltrate the upper echelons of Dunne’s gang, and gather enough evidence to arrest and charge Larry Dunne with drug offences.
His team of undercover mock drug addicts became known as ‘The Mockies’.
“Nobody had been applied in an undercover capacity working in drugs in Ireland. It was a dangerous, challenging environment,” says Michael.
Through vivid period archive and drama reconstruction we tell the story of Michael’s time in this undercover world, during which he and his team were often left isolated on the front line.
Michael describes being assaulted, stabbed with syringes and even having flesh bitten off during street arrests.
“It was very violent, and a case of trying to make the best decision as the case unfolded at street level. Violence was just an occupational hazard”.
Larry Dunne had a well known nickname on the streets of Dublin: ‘Larry Who Doesn’t Carry’. Michael’s challenge was to find Larry Dunne actually in possession of narcotics. Dealer by dealer, Michael worked his way up Dunne’s drug dealing pyramid, intent on arresting the boss himself.
The lucky break
Michael’s undercover investigations delivered a breakthrough. He discovered Dunne and his inner circle had started using the drugs they were selling. For Michael, this is Dunne’s fatal flaw.
“The drugs made them careless. They began to think they were invincible. But they had to be lucky all the time. We only had to be lucky once.”
Michael got that moment of luck. Intelligence said drugs were being held in the Dunne family home. A rapidly organised search of the property uncovered IR£60,000 of heroin stashed in his young daughter’s bedroom. Michael now had the evidence he needed to arrest Dunne and charge him with drug trafficking.
But the master criminal proved elusive. On the first day of his trial, he escaped from court and disappeared.
Dunne had slipped through Michael’s fingers. But he wasn’t out of the picture. From his hiding place on the Costa del Sol, Dunne ramped up his operation, and expanded his network of dealers. His destruction of the Dublin’s inner city communities now spread to the suburbs.
“Young people were dying. Communities were devastated. He was making profits. He was a mercenary. The people that worked with them were mercenaries. They didn’t care.”
It left Michael more determined than ever to catch Dunne, and the game of cat and mouse began once again.
The Case I Can’t Forget is a three part series made as a co-production for RTE by Green Inc Film and Television Ltd and Rare TV lreland Ltd.