Gardaí have this year mounted 73 separate high-tech ‘snoop’ operations involving placing bugging and tracking devices in the surveillance of suspected members of organised crime gangs and others engaged in serious crime.
In a report delivered to An Taoiseach by High Court judge, Mr Justice Michael Twomey, on the operation of the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Act 2009 in the 12 months to the end of July this year, he reports that gardaí made 57 applications for the use of tracking devices over the 12 months which compares to 81 for the previous 12 months.
Mr Justice Twomey says that "plausible reasons were provided to me for this reduction".
The use of covert bugging devices and tracking devices by gardaí has proven crucial in the war against gangland crime in preventing murders and securing evidence for convictions against members of the Kinahan crime cartel in the courts.
The recently published 2021 Garda Annual Report stated that Gardai have thwarted 77 assassinations since the murder of David Byrne (33) at the Regency Hotel in February 2016.
In his fifth annual review of the operation of the Criminal Justice Surveillance Act, Mr Justice Michael Twomey reports 16 applications were made by gardaí to the District Court for bugging operations.
The judge stated that it should be noted that in respect of the 16 applications, they were made before five different judges of the district court which he said "is a safeguard against ‘rubber-stamping’".
The judge reports that there were also seven urgent approvals for surveillance. This is where operations are approved internally by gardaí, before gardaí go to court for a judge's approval after the surveillance operation has been mounted.
Mr Justice Twomey said that in one instance gardaí went to a judge for urgent approval at 11.52pm rather than to a senior Garda.
Combating serious crime
Mr Justice Twomey stated that the Criminal Justice Surveillance Act is used extensively for the purpose of detecting and combating serious criminal activity including organised crime, serious Revenue offences and activities subversive to the State.
He stated that from his meetings with senior personnel in the relevant organisations: "I am satisfied that significant intelligence has been gathered by means of the Act which has either prevented serious crime or assisted in bringing successful prosecutions against the perpetrators of crime."
Mr Justice Twomey stated that without the powers given under the Act, "a significant amount of criminal activity could not be detected".
In his 11-page report, Mr Justice Twomey stated that he was impressed by the professionalism of the gardaí involved in surveillance work "which is of great benefit in the fight against crime, particularly the fight against organised crime and against activity which threatens the security of the State".
Mr Justice Twomey also examined surveillance operations put into place by the Defence Forces and the Revenue Commissioners Investigations, Prosecution and Frontier Management Division.
The figures show that the Defence Forces last year stepped up its surveillance operations where the Defence Forces made 26 surveillance operation applications to the District Court during the year compared to 24 during the prior year.
He said that Revenue secured approval for 16 applications for tracking devices — this was a decrease on the 30 applications sought for in the prior year.
Revenue also applied to the district court for two surveillance operations while seven urgent approvals for surveillance were sought from a superior officer.
Mr Justice Twomey also has oversight over surveillance operations by GSOC, but was told by the ombudsman that GSOC didn’t carry out such activity during the year.
