Crime World
Episode 1335: The three Ward brothers exposed by CAB as major drug traffickers
06 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
But he also talked about how he was basically recruited by Gary Ward. He was shown how to mix the drugs and bag them and sell them. He was threatened with an iron bar that he couldn't refuse in order to go to Dublin at any time to pick up heroin. And that he would be expected to do that on a frequent basis. And he was given a phone and told to turn it on at 10 a.m.
in the morning and turn it off at 10 p.m. And while the phone was on, he was working for him.
I'm Nicola Tallent and this is Crime World, a podcast about criminals, drugs and the sins of the underworld. If you like this podcast and want to learn more about crime, go to our new website www.crimeworld.com for stories, extras and podcast subscriber specials.
Three Galway brothers are named as part of a major drug network supplying the tourism heart of Ireland as details of their cruel use of free slave labour emerges. Today I'm talking to Eamon Dillon about Gary Ward and his band of brothers. This is Crime World, a podcast from crimeworld.com.
Eamon, I'm really sorry about the cold in here, but just there was a little incident yesterday when I was reading some stuff for some subscription content we'll have next week. And I nearly fell asleep because I had the air con off. And I was sitting here and I was reading it out and it just goes to show how it's almost like second nature to me now.
NASA said something over the intercom thing and I nearly jumped out of my... At least it wasn't one of my stories you were reading that sent you to sleep. Really, really bad now. It was really like... So I decided Aircon has to go on. We'll have to sit in... See, there's no air. Sit here in a hoodie. Sit here in a hoodie and just... A little bit of atmosphere. We'll suffer for our art.
So good to see you. And you too. Welcome back. Thank you. Thanks very much. We're going to talk about some drug dealing brothers from Galway, which is not a place that we often get an insight into gang activity and what's going on. But this is a story that you were writing and it's concerning. It's a criminal assets bureau case. But a lot of people won't know who these guys are.
Well, the target of the Criminal Assets Bureau case was Gary Ward, who is described as the leader of this particular organized crime group as the terminology they always use. And his wife, Debbie, she wasn't involved in the crime, but was aware of where the money was coming from and benefited from, I suppose, her partner's work as a drug dealer. Are they in Galway City now or where?
The Galway City, Newcastle area where he grew up and spent most of his life, he never had a job. There was some evidence that he might have recently started work as a courier, but there was no returns of revenue or anything like that. So as far as they could see, he never had any kind of real legitimate income, never held a job. And he was kind of seen as the leading light in this group.
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Chapter 2: What criminal activities are the Ward brothers involved in?
And, you know, he was... Like, he's the main man. That's the way they're describing it.
There'll be two strands to this. There's the Criminal Assets Bureau case against them, which will, you know, focus on what assets they have collected over the last few years. And then there's the evidence, which gives us an insight into how the gang worked and what they were doing.
So you take the hand on what you want to talk about first. Well, the guards set up an operation, Operation Lamprey. And in August 2023, they raided a number of properties. And one of those raided was Gary and Debbie's house in Galway. And they basically, they took, it was about 12 grand in cash, a Rolex watch, the ladies' watch. Two Ford Focus cars and a Ford Transit van.
So like on the face of it, you'd say it's not a whole lot. But as you say, then the evidence that was given, the belief evidence that kind of really outlined and detailed how the gang worked and what roles the others played. Certainly, it was an insight.
The council for CAB described their modus operandi as reprehensible in that they sought out and identified vulnerable people either through drug addiction or drug deaths and basically intimidated and forced them into carrying out all their dirty work.
And this included, you know, traveling to Dublin or Limerick or wherever to pick up their supply, to then store it, then to bag it, mix it and bag it and have it ready for sale and supply. And they, you know, they, I suppose, tried to keep as arm's length as possible in that sense, but did it by this kind of...
pretty nasty kind of version of events, you know, or way of working, you know, where they... They didn't want to pay anyone because they were using vulnerable addicts who they were, you know, basically setting them to work under threat.
Yeah. And they had, and they were being supplied, they were being supplied, they had supply contacts as it was put in Dublin, the Midlands and Limerick. So they were well connected in that sense. So they were obviously shopping around for the best deals or wherever the I suppose the best product or the most, I suppose the cheapest product might be what they were after.
But whatever was available, they'd switch obviously between different suppliers for different drugs as well. And of course, these people at the very bottom of the gangland food chain were being sent out to do it and were explicitly told to do exactly what they were ordered to do or they would face consequences and their families would face consequences as well.
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Chapter 3: Who is Gary Ward and what is his role in the drug network?
This is Michael. And it's said in the evidence that he still continued to, I suppose, collaborate and direct activities for the gang while in the UK. When he came back then, he bought the house in Carrick and Shannon in Leitrim. And he's been doing it up as well. So he's been spending money on it. There was no... Well, he has a...
you know, this roofing firm or, you know, this kind of building maintenance roofing firm, that there's nothing registered, like, you know, in the company's office. So, I mean, they actually said in evidence that they weren't sure whether it was a legit firm or not in that regard. But there was no evidence in terms of... that they're after any assets belonging to him at this stage.
So we don't know that at the moment. But I mean, it's not to say that there isn't going to be something brought up in the next couple of hearings, depending on whether or not somebody is going to contest it or not. Because essentially, Gary didn't contest this. He didn't appear. And they actually went through all the evidence about serving him notice through his wife in email.
And that's how we knew he was in Wandsworth. Although they said they didn't have the an official letter from the governor to say that he'd been, you know, given notice of this cab case. But the judge was, he was satisfied anyway that service had been done.
These were likely an outfit that were identified by local criminal assets bureau profilers. And that's still a huge arm of the criminal assets bureau, isn't it?
Look, I mean, it's all local, really. And I mean, there's been so many cases where the local profiler has, you know, come up with stuff. And I'm sure they're asked all the time, will you, you know, keep us updated?
And I mean, there has been ones where, you know, like a report went in and then two years later, a second report and the same person goes in and then they take action the second time, possibly because there's more assets or it's... you know, it's, or they've become more violent or more dangerous or, you know, they, you know, they just go up the list in terms of priority.
And I mean, like they described the ward OCG as being involved in a feud with another family-based gang in Galway that has led to, you know, arson attacks and intimidation, you know, all that kind of feud violence, you know, drug-related intimidation, violence that we've unfortunately seen a lot of in the last kind of
And which we've seen explode into way bigger situations than where they start, which is often just throwing, you know, firebombs into one another's houses. And the next thing you can have a situation like Drogheda, where you have the whole economy nearly of the town on a knife edge because these groups, their war has spilled over into everybody's lives.
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