'They all knew what was going on,' says McGlinchey

Ms Adrienne McGlinchey told the tribunal that all the gardaí in Buncrana, Co Donegal, knew that she and two other gardaí were…

Ms Adrienne McGlinchey told the tribunal that all the gardaí in Buncrana, Co Donegal, knew that she and two other gardaí were grinding fertiliser and sugar in her flat but they turned their backs and let it go on.

Ms McGlinchey said everyone in Buncrana Garda Station knew exactly what was going on. They knew about all the times, all the finds and that Det Garda Noel McMahon, Supt Kevin Lennon and she were doing it.

"They all knew we were planting the stuff. They all knew what was going on," she said.

They came to her afterwards. In 1997 she was stopped by a garda, who said she got Supt Lennon promoted and said she and Garda McMahon and Supt Lennon planted the bags.

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"They knew my flat was being used by Noel McMahon and Kevin Lennon. I know when that fertiliser and that icing sugar was being ground in my flat, half of them garda knew," Ms Mc Glinchey said.

They knew they were making the stuff and also that they were making it up in Garda McMahon's place.

"Everybody knew and they didn't care what was going on. Everybody turned their back and everybody was saying, 'Oh, we couldn't do nothing,' but they were guards too and they should've stopped them doing what they were doing to people like me," Ms McGlinchey said.

Garda McMahon was carrying bags of fertiliser into her flat. He could do what he wanted in the garda station.

"Why don't they say they knew, just one person say they knew," she said.

When the gardaí stopped her that time and he said Supt Lennon made a lot of money out of you. He said that they had used her for their own gains. This was Det Sgt Tom Shreenan outside the ESB in Letterkenny and she contacted Garda McMahon and asked how many of them knew. This was 1997/98 and Garda McMahon's reply was that they would get his pension taken off him.

"They were the law and they sat back and they didn't care. They knew we were using surveillance vans, they knew there was gardaí cars being used. They were up in my shed, different guards," Ms McGlinchey said.