Garda body set to send file to DPP

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission was as early as today expected to send a file to the DPP on its longest-running and arguably most significant investigation.

The investigation has examined why the State dropped criminal charges against Kieran Boylan, a drug dealer who had been charged over a €1.7 million drugs find.

A key area of the investigation centred on whether Boylan was given favourable treatment in exchange for information on other criminals at a time when gardaí knew he was using his haulage licence to import drugs.

The commission has prepared a file for the DPP, similar to a criminal file that would be prepared in a Garda investigation. It has also compiled a report summarising the investigation. Both were due to be sent to the DPP today or tomorrow.

The report will be published after the DPP has decided if people featured in it have criminal cases to answer and only after any trials were over.

As well as considering criminal charges against gardaí, in some cases senior officers, the DPP will examine whether convictions secured on the basis of evidence supplied by Boylan are unsafe.

In July 2008, the State entered a nolle prosequi in the case against Boylan (39), Rockfield Park, Ardee, Co Louth. The dropped charges related to the seizure of €1.7 million of cocaine and heroin in October 2005.

It has been alleged Boylan told arresting gardaí he was working for some gardaí.

The ombudsman has examined the nature of Boylan’s relationship, if any, with gardaí. It has examined whether he was distributing drugs in the knowledge of gardaí while informing for them. It has also been alleged he led gardaí to find drugs hauls after he had passed those drugs to other dealers.

The inquiry has examined whether Boylan’s contact with gardaí was linked to the charges being dropped.

It has also probed claims by a Louth couple they were threatened after making a confidential report to gardaí about drugs linked to Boylan.

The case has also focused on whether Boylan was a registered Garda informer.

The registering of informers and the logging of contact with them was a key reform of the Morris tribunal.