Dissident republican boss is central to gang of people-traffickers and pimps

20 June 2010
The Sunday Independent

Dissident republicans are running prostitution rackets using young women trafficked into Ireland by the Eastern European mafia.

And the head of the Continuity IRA (CIRA) in Co Louth has been uncovered as a central figure in the trafficking and enslavement of the young women.

According to gardai, this man -- who is in his early 40sand married with children -- has also raped several of the young women trafficked into Ireland. He is also said to have raped a Brazilian transsexual who was working independently in a Dundalk hotel after the prostitute refused to hand over earnings.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, CIRA, Drugs, Real IRA, sex trafficking, Sinn Féin

We'll deal them out! RIRA targets Dublin and Donegal drug pushers

7 March 2010
The News of the World
Stephen Breen

A twisted republican terror group vowed last night to kill ALL drug dealers in DUBLIN and DONEGAL. The Real IRA, whose psychos murdered alleged drugs smuggler Kieran Doherty, 31, in Co Derry on February 24, warned it would to extend its war on pushers. Cops visited a number of suspected dealers in Bundoran and inner city Dublin last week to warn them their lives were in danger.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, Co. Donegal, Drugs, Ireland, Kieran Doherty, MI5, Northern Ireland, Real IRA, Sinn Féin

Why MI5 is free to operate here while Stormont can't do a thing

4 March 2010
Belfast Telegraph
Comment

At Stormont on Monday, Mark Durkan said that MI5 had "serious questions to answer" in relation to the killing of Kieran Doherty. Mr Doherty's body was found dumped on the Braehead Road outside Derry on Wednesday night last week. The Real IRA says he had been one of their members and that they'd killed him for involvement in a "cannabis factory" in Donegal. The Doherty family has denied the allegation and suggested that MI5 had a hand in the events. What gives this suggestion credibility beyond the ranks of conspiracy theorists is that in the weeks leading up to his death, Mr Doherty had repeatedly complained to local media of MI5 harassment. However, the fact that the questions are credible doesn't mean Durkan will get credible answers. Or any answers. MI5 doesn't do answers. Or credibility.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, Co. Donegal, Drugs, Informers, Kieran Doherty, MI5, Northern Ireland, PSNI, Real IRA

Sister of Real IRA murder victim hits out at the killers

3 March 2010
Belfast Telegraph


THE sister of Kieran Doherty, murdered by the Real IRA, has told a rally of supporters that his death could not be justified. A tearful Leeanne Doherty addressed a crowd gathered just off Guildhall Square on Custom House Street last night. She told the shoppers and workers the Real IRA had killed a "loving man, a partner, a son, a father, a grandson".

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, Co. Donegal, Drugs, Kieran Doherty, MI5, Northern Ireland, Real IRA

Murdered man’s family accuse MI5 of harassment

27 February 2010
Belfast Telegraph
Clare Weir

The family of murdered Londonderry man Kieran Doherty have spoken for the first time to demand an inquiry into whether MI5 was involved in his death — and have strongly denied that the 31-year-old was involved in drugs. The statement was issued last night through Derry journalist and campaigner Eamonn McCann. A caller to a newroom in the city claimed that the Real IRA had carried out the attack. “Kieran was not an informer and was in no way involved in drugs,” read the family statement.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, Denis Donaldson, Drugs, Informers, Kieran Doherty, MI5, Northern Ireland, PSNI, Real IRA, Sinn Féin

Real IRA: Kieran Doherty admitted drugs link

2 March 2010
Belfast Telegraph

The Real IRA has claimed that Kieran Doherty, whom it abducted and murdered last week, had admitted his involvement in a €500,000 cannabis factory uncovered by gardai in Donegal last month. In a statement, a representative of its ‘Army Council’ claimed Doherty (31) had made the admission during a six-week ‘investigation’ by the Real IRA following the discovery of the drugs factory.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, British Special Forces, Co. Donegal, Drugs, Informers, Ireland, Kieran Doherty, MI5, Northern Ireland, Real IRA

Cannabis smuggler jailed in us for 25 years freed to return home

13 April 1995
The Guardian
Duncan Campbell

Howard Marks, the former Balliol student jailed for 25 years in the United States in 1990 for cannabis smuggling, has been released and has returned to England. His sentence had earlier been reduced to 20 years and at the end of last month he was granted parole. 

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, Informers, IRA, MI6

Spies defect from MI6 (1998)

Spies defect from MI6 for shadowy careers in the City.
Nicholas Rufford
15 November 1998
The Sunday Times
BRITAIN'S spies are coming out of the shadows to make a killing in the City. Former officers of MI6, the overseas intelligence service, have found a more lucrative way to make a living than espionage. They are setting up consultancies to help British companies get the edge over foreign rivals and avoid the hazards of turbulent Third World markets. Oil companies, banks and defence contractors have signed up the new firms which charge a minimum fee of about #10,000 per assignment.

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Hamilton McMillan, Howard Marks, IRA, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, MI6

Jim McCann

Jim McCann

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, IRA, Ireland, Jim McCann, McCann, Northern Ireland

Hamilton McMillan MI6 (1999)

Hamilton McMillan was named by Howard Marks (drug trafficker) as the intelligence officer who recruited him into MI6.

The reason MI6 wanted Howard Marks was due to his known association with James Joseph McCann, the IRA man who was part of Mark's drug smuggling operations into Ireland.

Continue Reading... Labels: British Special Forces, Dennis Howard Marks, Douglas Hogg, Drugs, Hamilton McMillan, Hogg, Howard Marks, IRA, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, McCann, MI5, MI6, Real IRA, Special Branch

James Joseph McCann

Howard Marks - writing about James Joseph McCann aka Jimmy McCann aka Jim "the Fox" McCann

Page 78 onward

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, McCann, MI6

Ireland's cocaine coast (2007)

Ireland's cocaine coast
A recent bust in the 'Irish box' shows drug smugglers are ruling over the Cork shore
Henry McDonald and Mark Townsend
Sunday July 8, 2007

It is known as the 'Irish box' - 7,500 miles of water and coastline stretching from the republic's Atlantic seaboard around to Dublin in the east. Vast expanses of these waters are subject to freak and often rapid weather changes that, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, make them 'nearly impossible to patrol' and an ideal launch pad for drug smugglers to penetrate the lucrative UK market.

Continue Reading... Labels: British Special Forces, Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, MAOC, McCann, MI6, Northern Ireland, Portugal

Marijuana ring - 22 charged (1988)

22 CHARGED IN MARIJUANA RING
26 July 1988
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Twenty-two people were charged Monday with running the biggest Asian-based marijuana ring ever uncovered, an operation that shipped tons of the contraband at a time, federal authorities said.  The man alleged to be the leader of the ring is a British citizen, Dennis Howard Marks, 42, said interim U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen. Previously, Marks was acquitted of drug charges in England after claiming he worked for British counterintelligence. 

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, MI6, Portugal

Hashish Ring Case (1988)

THREE BRITONS ARRESTED IN MAJORCA IN HASHISH RING CASE
26 July 1988
Reuters News

Three Britons suspected of involvement in one of the world's biggest marijuana smuggling rings have been arrested on the Mediterranean island of Majorca after an extradition request by the United States.  Dennis Howard Marks, 43, his wife Judith, 33, and Geoffrey Kenyon, 46, were arrested on Monday and would be held in custody pending the extradition process, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, IRA, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, McCann, MI6, Portugal

Drugs Ring Swoop (1988)

ENGLISH, SPANISH POLICE ARREST SUSPECTS IN DRUGS RING SWOOP
26 July 1988
Reuters News

British police said on Tuesday they arrested four people in connection with one of the world's biggest marijuana smuggling rings whose suspected head once worked for British intelligence.  A police spokesman said the action was related to the arrest of three Britons on Monday by police on Spain's Mediterranean island of Majorca. Among those detained, according to Spanish radio, was Dennis Howard Marks, the ring's alleged leader.

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, MI6

Smuggling Ring Is Broken (1988)

Global Drug-Smuggling Ring Is Broken, U.S. Officials Say; Suspect Called `Marco Polo' of Narcotics
Michael Isikoff
26 July 1988
The Washington Post

U.S. officials yesterday said they had broken up an international narcotics smuggling ring headed by Dennis Howard Marks, a flamboyant trafficker who once beat drug charges in Britain by claiming to be working for British intelligence. Marks, an Oxford-trained physicist, was arrested in Spain yesterday as federal prosecutors in Miami unsealed an indictment charging him and 21 alleged co-conspirators with operating a worldwide ring that smuggled marijuana from Thailand and hashish from Pakistan into the United States and Europe. 

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, IRA, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, MI6, Portugal

Briton - leader of hashish ring (1988)

BRITON IS CALLED LEADER OF HASHISH RING
26 July 1988
The Record

The alleged leader of what police called the world's biggest hashish ring was arrested Monday as part of an international drug sweep that involved U.S., British, and Spanish authorities.  In a midday raid at a seaside mansion on the Mediterranean island of Majorca, police arrested three Britons, including Dennis Howard Marks, the suspected leader of the gang.

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, MI6

22 people charged - 15 tons hashish (1988)

22 people charged and 15 tons of hashish seized in coordinated operation with Spain and UK.
26 July 1988
The Times

Mr Howard Marks, director of Hong Kong Travel International, and IRA man Mr Jimmy McCann ("The Fox") were arrested in Majorca. Mr Marks is believed to be the leader of the biggest drug smuggling ring worldwide, in operation for 18 years. Mr Marks was aquitted seven years ago of smuggling 15 tons of cannabis, when he claimed to be an MI6 agent. The US Drug Enforcement Agency, who coordinated the operation, hope for a trial in the US of all those arrested.

(Note: The British Government later admitted that Marks WAS an informer, recruited by MI6.)

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, Informers, IRA, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, McCann, MI6

Three Britons Arrested (1988)

THREE BRITONS ARRESTED IN MAJORCA IN HASHISH RING CASE
26 July 1988
Reuters News
Three Britons suspected of involvement in one of the world's biggest marijuana smuggling rings have been arrested on the Mediterranean island of Majorca after an extradition request by the United States. Dennis Howard Marks, 43, his wife Judith, 33, and Geoffrey Kenyon, 46, were arrested on Monday and would be held in custody pending the extradition process, a police spokesman said on Tuesday. Marks, alleged leader of the group and described by a U.S. drug enforcement official in Miami as the "Marco Polo of the drug trafficking world ", had arrived in Palma last Thursday from Zurich. He and his wife were arrested at their house in Palma, the island's capital, while Kenyon was detained at the restaurant he runs nearby, the police spokesman said.

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, IRA, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, McCann, MI6, Portugal

Drug Figure Seized (1988)

DRUG FIGURE SEIZED IN MAJORCA RAID
Chronicle Wire Services
26 July 1988
The San Francisco Chronicle
The alleged leader of what police called the world's biggest hashish ring was arrested yesterday as part of an international drug sweep that involved U.S., British and Spanish authorities. In a raid at a seaside mansion on the Spanish island of Majorca, police arrested three Britons, including Dennis Howard Marks, the gang's suspected leader. The arrests followed a weekend raid on a cove and villa along Spain's northeastern Mediterranean coast during which authorities recovered 17 tons of Morocco-grown hashish worth $33 million - the biggest drug seizure in European history, a regional government spokesman. Most of the hashish was destined for sale in Europe, and camouflaged in sacks marked "Coffee from Brazil."

Continue Reading... Labels: Dennis Howard Marks, Drugs, Howard Marks, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, MI6