Christy Keane refused bail over €70k cocaine charges
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What are the charges and bail decision for Christy Keane?
Limerick veteran Christy Keane has been refused bail as the Director of Public Prosecutions seeks for his case to be heard before the Special Criminal Court. The 65-year-old, who's charged with possession of cocaine with intent to supply, faces 10 years in prison if found guilty. And today I'm talking with Niall Donald. You're listening to Crime World, a podcast from crimeworld.com. We've just been chatting away there. Little did we know. Do you know, I was actually on the phone to an hour of my life, I'll never get back, to Sky about my broadband this morning and it kept warning me that the calls may be recorded, particularly when you're on hold, okay?
Yeah.
And I was in the car on the way into work and I, you sort of, like it always becomes a mantra and you ignore it.
Yeah.
Well, I was giving a ding dong on my own in the car.
Yeah.
And it was all recorded. Who were you giving that about? About the people in Sky. Oh, yeah. Who actually ultimately came to my aid, but anyway. Yeah. Your life is a series of foiled by technology events, isn't it?
How has regional drug activity changed in Ireland’s west and border counties?
That's what I felt like it was going to be. But in actual fact, it was an outage that is the problem.
And one was not aware that I think you can look it up and see any outages in my area. No, one wasn't. Yes. One wasn't. One may be aware of it next time.
And one was, yeah, one was around the world, I think, on call centers and various things. But anyway... It just struck me when we went, we go to talk about this story, which relates to Christy Keane of Limerick, that there has been a lot of activity, investigative drug related activity outside Dublin of late. You know, there's been a big kind of moves in Sligo. I think you've seen a lot of activity, investigations in Donegal. In
the general border area as well, I think, and obviously in County Loud and Mead
as a result. And we've seen big, big sort of investigations in Kerry as well. This is probably becoming more and more the norm. and will be, but for a long time, most of the Garda activity was, you know, related to Dublin and the surrounding counties.
Well, if you remember, there was a time where, I think to an extent it still goes on, but people used to get to train up to Dublin to buy their drugs and then get to train back. But the popularity of cocaine, for want of a better term, has changed all that. So these regional criminal organisations have become much more profitable and much stronger. And the idea that there would have been somebody making millions selling drugs in a place like Kerry, for example, would have seemed incredible two decades ago.
Why did the court refuse bail for Christy Keane and his co‑accused?
There was always actually expat dealers, wasn't there, in Kerry. But the homegrown trade wouldn't have made you a lot of money. But that's changed
now. Or maybe it did and was controlled by people operating outside the area. Or the ones operating inside the area weren't caught. But definitely, I think some of the regional drugs units, are being fed with really good intelligence and they are having huge success from their point of view. So, Christy Keane is before the courts. Christy Keane being one of the bosses of the Limerick groupings, right? And around a long time. Keane is now 65 years of age, originally from St. Mary's Park in Limerick. And he is facing charges relating to 70 grand's worth of cocaine, which was discovered in his property on a bin lid and what appears to have been in a follow-up search from a targeted operation on his group.
Yes, Mr Keane has denied any knowledge of it. However, we have heard some details of the investigation as a result of him making a bail application. He was charged a number of months ago and had been remanded in custody. And we heard a bit of those details because when somebody goes for bail, if it's contested, the guards sort of lay out the case why, if they oppose bail, they say this person shouldn't be given bail. And we heard the drugs are seized as part of a planned operation targeting the Keene Organised Crime Group. That was told in the bail hearing.
Who is Stephen McNamara and what role does he play in the Keane drug operation?
Now, there's a co-accused with Christy Keane, a guy called Stephen McNamara from Mulligan County Clare, and he's charged with a larger possession or charged with possession of a large amount of cocaine, 492,000 in total.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the charges and bail decision for Christy Keane?
0:02–1:10
2
How has regional drug activity changed in Ireland’s west and border counties?
1:10–2:55
3
Why did the court refuse bail for Christy Keane and his co‑accused?
2:55–4:27
4
Who is Stephen McNamara and what role does he play in the Keane drug operation?
4:27–6:37
5
What evidence linked the seized BMW and the €70,000 of cocaine to Keane’s gang?
6:37–7:57
6
What potential sentence could Christy Keane face if convicted?
7:57–9:25
7
Why is the case being moved to the Special Criminal Court?
9:25–11:32
8
What are the next steps and broader implications for Limerick organised crime?
11:32–13:33
Speakers
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