Considered one of Italy’s most dangerous fugitives, suspected of being a boss of the Camorra mafia and the one-time owner of two stolen Van Gogh masterpieces, Raffaele Imperiale is now counting the cost of his life of crime.

Arrested earlier this month in Dubai, he is facing hefty charges back in Italy and a lengthy prison sentence for his role at the very top of organised crime.

But Imperiale is no ordinary mafia Don. Documents from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the U.S. suggest that he was part of a European cocaine super cartel which included, amongst others, the Kinahan mafia.

Nicola Tallant chats with Sunday World deputy editor Niall Donald about what his capture means for the takedown of the European narcos and how it leaves Daniel Kinahan as one of the last men standing in Dubai.

Crime World Extra: The Arrest Of Kinahan-Linked Mafia Boss Raffaele Imperiale

He was the gangland fixer known as 'The Coach' and for decades he tried to play the criminal underworld, police and the media.

Criminal John Traynor dreamed of wealth and women when he joined the ranks of Martin ‘The General’ Cahill's armed robbery gang, but he would later turn on his old boss in favour of the new order under John Gilligan.

Traynor believed himself to be a master manipulator, but in the end he wasn’t quite as clever as he believed and spent his last years living in a dingy flat in a washed-up English seaside town before dying in a hospice far from home.

Nicola Tallant chats with Sunday World Deputy Editor Niall Donald about the life and crimes of the one that got away and the sorry end of the once powerful Coach.

Crime World Extra: The sorry end of once-powerful gangland 'fixer' John Traynor

It's been a year of takedowns and the end of the line for many. And while 2021 closes on a high note for gardai fighting organised crime, it has left many criminals counting their last days of freedom.

Nicola Tallant is joined by Sunday World journalists Niall Donald and Eamon Dillon to look back at the stories that made the headlines. 

From John Gilligan to the Rathkeale Rovers, Gerry 'the Monk' Hutch and his bitter rivals in the Kinahan Cartel, 2021 was a year that will long live in the memory in the world of crime.

Episode 58: 2021 - The Crime Year In Review

Drug war in Mexico – how the narcos and their violent sicarios are being armed by legally-sold weapons in the US.

Crime World Extra: The American guns fuelling the deadly Mexican Cartels and drug wars (re-post)

Detective Anthony Amore tracks down stolen art and follows clues all over the world hunting priceless masterpieces which have been snatched by thieves. 
Today, Amore talks to Nicola Tallant about one time heiress, Rose Dugdale, who gave up a charmed life to become an IRA activist and a thief who picked out the jewels of Russborough House in Wicklow and later inspired the legendary criminal Martin 'The General' Cahill. 
He also reveals what he thinks about another famous criminal Martin ‘The Viper’ Foley and his tall tales.

Crime World Extra: A stolen masterpiece and an unlikely thief (re-post)

In Northern Ireland’s troubled past there have been hundreds of atrocities and thousands of lives lost - but one 24-hour period stands out as the most brutal of all. 

Forty five years ago this week, unprecedented slaughter visited a small corner of south Armagh and left its mark forever on both the landscape and the lives of those left behind.

First, was the brutal murder of the Catholic Reavey brothers,  John Martin and Brian, just 24 and 22-years-old when they were gunned down in their family home.

Their 17-year-old brother, Anthony, catastrophically injured in the ambush, would die weeks later. The attack was carried out by the notorious 'Glennanne Gang', made up of rogue police and army officers working in collusion with loyalist terrorists in a sick bid to ethnically cleanse the catholic population. 
Twenty minutes after the ambush, in a co-ordinated attack, three members of the O’Dowd family were slaughtered in their home in nearby County Down by a UVF hit team.

But that wasn’t the end of the killings. Within 24 hours of the murders, a suspected IRA terror mob carried out the shocking Kingsmill massacre of 10 innocent protestant textile workers and one more who miraculously survived.

So what is the legacy of such appalling events and after four-and-a-half decades is the British government's plans for a Troubles amnesty a line in the sand or an outrage to those still seeking justice? 

Nicola Tallant and Sunday World colleague Hugh Jordan visit peace campaigner Eugene Reavey, as he recalls the dreadful events that visited his life and they consider the stark reality that some scars will never heal.

Episode 59: The most brutal 24-hour period in the North's troubled past

He is a well known Criminal Assets Bureau target who was once put on trial for a tiger kidnapping, but Dubliner Jonathan Gill has now launched a new venture as a conflict negotiator and says he can solve disputes in broken marriages, business upheavals and even in neighbourhood rows.

With no major convictions, Gill says he is innocent of any involvement in crime but the courts have heard differently - and on one occasion he was described as one of Ireland’s top criminals.

Here, Nicola Tallant chats with Sunday World Deputy Editor Niall Donald about Gill and his new business venture.

Episode 60: CAB target Jonathan Gill and his new 'dispute-solving' business

The antics of Daniel Kinahan and his insistence that he is an innocent boxing promoter wrongly accused of involvement in organised crime spectacularly backfired this week.

In an extraordinary conference in Dublin, the Kinahan mob were sanctioned just like Russian Oligarchs as the forces of law from the US, Europe and the UK stood together to declare Christy Kinahan Snr and his two sons as enemies of the State.

In a series of speeches, border officers, police chiefs and our own Commissioners laid bare the Kinahans' journey from the streets of Dublin to the very top of a trans-global network dealing in drugs, guns and murder while laundering €1 billion profits in business interests across the world.

Nicola Tallant chats with Sunday World Deputy Editor, Niall Donald, about the most incredible day in Irish criminal history – one which will cement the role the Kinahans have played in changing the face of crime fighting for good.

Episode 94: How the world's law enforcement plotted the downfall of the Kinahan Cartel

A week after U.S. sanctions were levelled at the Kinahan mafia an incredible fallout continues, as many run for cover and deny relationships with the top tier.

But at the heart of the countless stories and headlines about the Kinahan Organised Crime Group has been an insight into the man at the very top of the tree.

While the concentration has been on his son Daniel and his links to boxing, the 'Dapper Don', Christy Kinahan Snr, has been moonlighting as an aviation broker and running a string of social media accounts featuring his musings about the world.

Nicola Tallant chats with Sunday World Deputy Editor Niall Donald about the ultimate 'Godfather of Crime' and the two faces he shows to the world.

Episode 97: Christy Kinahan Snr - The Cartel 'Godfather' who hid in plain sight

One month since US sanctions were levelled against the Kinahan Cartel and as the dust settles on the dramatic announcements, what exactly has changed for those named and shamed as targets?

What exactly does it even mean to be sanctioned and who else is on the list compiled by America’s most powerful?

Nicola Tallant talks with journalist Eamon Dillon about the intricacies of a financial circuit breaker, about the growing indications that the Kinahans could be indicted in the US and about the terrorists and narco bosses that they have joined on the toxic list of shame.

Episode 105: What has changed for the Kinahan Cartel since the U.S. sanctions?

Two gangsters have been convicted in the first murder plot trial involving EncroChat phones, a system described in court as ‘an Amazon for organised criminals’.

Despite no DNA evidence, no fingerprints and no weapon, the court found that Paul Fontaine and Frankie Sinclair tried to organise a 'hit' by text.

At least 260 other cases in the UK have been successfully convicted since the 'hack' by French and Dutch police in 2020, described as a ‘game changer’ for law enforcement.

But why are lawyers from across Europe now writing to the EU Parliament to complain on behalf of their clients and what are the likelihood of some appeals?

Nicola Tallant chats with journalist Chris Sommers about the Fontaine-Sinclair case and the raft of criminals caught up in the EncroChat net.

Episode 106: The gangland fall-out from the EncroChat phone hack

Crime World, with Nicola Tallant, is a weekly Irish podcast about criminals, drugs and the sins of the underworld. Discussing the real stories, and the real people, behind the grisly headlines.

Crime World Extra: The Arrest Of Kinahan-Linked Mafia Boss Raffaele Imperiale

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