Unlimited Snack Boxes, All Ireland Final Tickets, Coppers Gold Cards; Inside Gardaí On The Take

WITH THE National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) raiding the homes of three serving members of the gardaí over connections to criminal gangs, WWN goes deep undercover and chats with several members of the force who are ‘on the take’.

“People might think an unlimited supply of snack boxes might be a strange request, but I’m saving myself around 50 euros a day on lunch and dinners,” one garda explains, admitting to receiving free food from a local fast-food business known for laundering money for gangs, “it’s harder to trace freebies, especially ones you can eat and shit back down the jacks”.

Speaking with a Tipperary Garda working in Dublin, Coppers’ Gold Cards have become more expensive than gold thanks to nightclub restrictions and a now undermanned, underfunded force.

“Can you distort my voice?” the guard asked WWN, before being told his voice cannot be heard in printed form, “ah grand, mad what ye can do these days with technology, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, Coppers’ cards, that’s the new currency, lad. I could get 3-5 of them babies a month for tipping off local pushers. Frontliners are screaming out for them at the mo ahead of the big reopening with one card going for €1100 worth twice my average weekly wage. But I usually charge nurses less though if they agree to give me a snaky shift”.

In some instances, ham sandwiches wrapped in tinfoil were offered as bribes, along with half price All Ireland tickets, and in some more extreme cases, new Garda uniforms.

“Things are tight at HQ so I had to barter for a new pair of shoes and stab vest in exchange for tipping off a grow house,” another cash strapped garda said, “I’m not proud of it, but we’re all at it – I know an ambulance paramedic who swapped morphine for a working defibrillator one time so he could save a man’s life”.

With bribery seemingly rife in the force, many gardaí we spoke to pointed to not earning enough money, long hours and not being treated with respect by senior gardaí as viable excuses for breaking their code of honour.

“I don’t think there’s a guard out there who would turn down Croke Park box tickets in exchange for the whereabouts of a known informant,” concluded another, “at the end of the day, both sides absolutely hate rats”.