GARDA & EUROPOL LINK-UP FOILS DEADLY PLOTS HOME & ABROAD

GARDAI have worked with European police forces to prevent more than a dozen murder plots in Ireland and in Europe, it can be revealed today.

- BY MICHAEL O'TOOLE Crime and Defence Editor in The Hague

A garda detective on secondment at Europol tells the Irish Mirror that she and her team are sharing up to 50 pieces of intelligence a day with officers from other police forces working with the organisation - the EU's main crime fighting agency.

And she also reveals that Irish gangs are now jockeying in Europe to take over the mantle of the Kinahan cartel.

And she says that, in the last four years alone, police forces in Europe have tipped off gardai about more than 10 imminent threat to life incidents in Ireland - that officers have then moved to prevent.

The officer tells us that gardai have also provided such vital intelligence to other forces in Europe - and that it is not a one-way street.

RESPECT

The officer, speaking to us inside Europol's heavily protected HQ in the Dutch city of The Hague, tells us she passed on information to gardai that was given to her from other countries' staff there.

She says: "I provided intelligence to gardai in respect of notifications of potential threats to life. Information either shared from other countries or from Europol to Ireland has definitely led to actions carried out by investigators."

She adds: "I've had instances where we've received a series of them, and then I've had months for nothing where we haven't received any of them.

"So it wouldn't surprise me to receive a phone call in relation to a potential threat to life. There's a lot of things in the news, cases in the news that you see, that you will never know that the intelligence came from here."

The officer, who cannot be identified for her own security, tells us that gardai have also shared sensitive intelligence with other police forces about potential hits in Europe.

She says: "Intelligence is shared both ways.

"Irish investigators have been actively engaging with Europol and international partners in respect of the same operations.