Drugs cop tells of double life
FORMER RUC officer Paddy Craig tells the News Letter why he diced with death to go undercover in the world's deadliest drugs gangs.
The Belfast man – who claims he was trained by legendary FBI undercover agent 'Donnie Brasco' – says he helped put hundreds of dealers behind bars and took millions of pounds worth of heroin off the streets.
Memoir
His book Undercover Cop hits the shelves today, and in it he details a career of massive drugs busts and conspiracies throughout the 1990s.
Paddy – not his real name – is only one of the assumed identities he says he has to travel under because he has contracts hanging over his head.
The father-of-two's first marriage collapsed as he spent eight years posing as a major player in the multi-billion-pound drugs trade.
Close calls
Carrying up to three passports at a time, Paddy, 54, says he's been kidnapped, interrogated, blown up and narrowly missed assassination.
"I'm not afraid and I've got no regrets," the stocky Belfast man says, seated in a cafe in his home city.
"I don't need a gun – a vegetable could fire a gun.
"I've been trained by the world's best. I could kill someone with a spoon."
As he speaks, he picks up the spoon that's been sitting innocently beside his cafe latte and strokes the handle.
As he holds the weapon, Paddy doesn't blink – he hardly ever does.
Is that because he's always looking over his shoulder?
No fear
"No. If I see someone on the street who I put away I'm not crossing the road.
"You can't be too paranoid."
Paddy grew up in the Ardoyne area before he joined the RUC in 1975.
Promoted to detective in two years, he was put in charge of the CID Surveillance Unit.
But he got tired of the team sitting round "playing cards" so decided to get them trained in covert techniques.
Training
"We were trained by the best from Scotland Yard," Paddy said.
"Special Branch weren't going to do anything with us so I went ahead and organised it."
Donnie Brasco
It was on the training he met Joe Pistone - arguably the FBI's most famous undercover agent.
Under the alias 'Donnie Brasco' he was responsible for infiltrating the Mafia in the 1970s and putting more than 100 gangsters in prison.
Paddy added: "Joe's a personal friend and a pioneer in the field.
"He taught me that if I was to run aliases I had to keep the lives completely separate.
Split lives
"My trick was to keep their lives in two separate briefcases, from wallets and watches to bus tickets."
Paddy's two aliases were gangster duo Sean Murphy and Billy Craig.
"I had a laugh at the names," he said.
His newly-trained team was sought by other police forces and they seized multi-milloin drugs shipments in Amsterdam, Turkey and Spain.
He eventually called time on his undercover life when international terrorists became involved in arms deals with drugs gangs.
"It was time to go," he said.
Full interview in today's News Letter.
If I see someone on the street who I put away I’m not crossing the road.
“You can’t be too paranoid.”
Psychologists say many undercover agents suffer from borderline personality disorders which mean they only feel “alive” when acting out a part.
Paddy insists boredom pushed him into the fight against dealers in the UK, Republic and continental Europe.
After growing up in the Ardoyne area, he joined the Army and then the RUC in 1975.
Promoted to detective in two years, Paddy worked through the Troubles and survived a 1,000lb IRA car bomb attack on a checkpoint in Strabane.
He was transferred to CID after the IRA targeted his young family.
Paddy said: “My boy would have seen me checking under the car every day – so he started copying me when he was just two years old.”
Appointed head of the CID Surveillance Unit, Paddy got sick of the unit “sitting around and playing cards”.
“Special Branch weren’t doing anything with the unit, so I got us trained by the best in Scotland Yard.”
Paddy honed two gangster personas for himself during the training – republican Sean Murphy and loyalist Billy Craig.
After his newly-trained unit’s success in Northern Ireland other police forces starting with the Garda began asking for its services.
Often operating as lone agents, Paddy and his men seized multi-million pound consignments in Amsterdam, Turkey and Spain.
One gang tested that Paddy wasn’t wired by threatening him with a meeting in a swimming pool – when he had a tape recorder strapped to his back.
And one Amsterdam operation was called off at the last minute when he was tipped off that his cover was blown
Paddy never told his friends or his wife what he was doing – his former wife used to phone him and hear European drug lords entertaining him in night-clubs.
“It put a strain on my family life, leaving them in the dark and being away for months.”
The collapse of his marriage is one of the reasons he says he left his job in 2004.
“The work had become very dangerous by then anyway, with most of the drugs gangs involved in arms deals which was bringing you into contact with international terrorists.
“It was time to go.”
n Undercover Cop, published by Gill Macmillan, is priced 11.99.
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Monday 28 May 2012
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