I was 1 of the 36 in Operation Quest

[Einstein II]

I have a question please .

: in Ireland are you legally obliged to sit in the squad car ?

: you have committed no crime , they tap you on the shoulder and have you trapped in a patrol car .

: are you obliged to accept their ‘invitation’ to sit in the car , or can you say you’d rather not do that

and keep whatever interaction on the street ?

If they have reasonable suspicion you were committing a crime they can detain you so could mean sitting in a Squad Car but don't let that intimidate you, just be cooperative and polite and let them do the work.

[bmw528]

Basically set up an account to share what happened to me last saturday night.

I was contemplating the last two weeks if I should or not, but fuck it... (the reason im only saying it now)

I was caught in an apparement block in Northwood two weeks ago. To the poeple who know the location I parked my car outside Spar and walked over to the apparments.

When I was leaving the place, walking back towards the Road I was approached by a Male Garda who showed me his ID and asked if I could talk to him and hs colleague for a few minutes in the Car.

I agree and I got into the car which was only 3/4 cars up to where he stopped me. There was a female Garda in the driver Seat. I really cant remeber the exact coversation word for word but it basically went like:

Female Garda- Asked my Name, address and if I had any Id on me. Note, she is writing the whole duration of the coversationr- I dont know what she is writing in her notebook I could not see.

Male Garda - We know what you have been up to, we seen you enter the appartment, are only concern is the girls we only want to know if the girls are safe, there involved in a highly violent gang who control them, beat them regulary and dont let them out of the apparment.

Me- I think you might have the wrong person. I dont know what you are talking about

Male Garda- We are not stupid, what were you doing in the apparment then

Me- I was looking after some Business

Male Garda - what Business, we know what you were doing explain to me why you were in the appatrment

Me- I was looking after some Business

This line of question and answer went on for a few minutes

Female Garda - Do you have a phone

Me- I do but Im not handing it to you because I have done nothing wrong

Male Garda - Have you been doing any drugs tonight, theres a strong smell of cannabis coming from you( this was a complete lie, I dont smoke weed, I knew exacly were it was going)

Me- I dont do drugs

Female Garda - Were going to search you under the drugs offence act(or whatever its called) because I belive you have drugs in your possession

I step outsde the car, male Garda goes straight for my phone and barely searches me. We both go back into the car. Male Garda gets in the back with me.

Male Gards- Whats the pin (phone was turned off, garda turns phone on and asks for pin)

Me- I will not be giving you my pin as I have doing nothing wrong

This is were they both start getting real aggressive at me, the Male Garda has his face right in my face the whole time below even when not talking.

Female Garda- Do you think we are stupid you fucking prick we know what you have been doing we saw you.

Male Garda- I can fucking arrest you right now, you wont be so smart then you prick.we know what you were doing in the apparments. This is you're last chance to tell us before it becomes series and you're last chance to get your say get your say.

Me- I wont be making any further comment if you are going to arrest me until I get legal advise which I am legally entitiled too

Male Garda - Fuck off then and get out of the car

Female Garda - You will be hearing from us soon

Me- Can I get my phone back then, you have no right to take my property.

Female -Go ahead and make a complient to the obudsman

Me- Can I have you're names and badge numbers

Male Garda- Go to reception in Santry Garda station tomorrow you will be able to find us easy enough. Get out of the fucking Car now.

They kept the phone, they know Im not going to go to the garda staion and give them more details about myself to get a punter phone back.

Anyway, at this point I just left. Now I would be a confident person who would not get intimidated easily, but it was fairly intimidating especially when they ambushed me out of no where


I have a few Rules I follow that mght help others; I always park 5 minute walk away, I never apprach the door ith my phone out and always get the address before I leave the car. I use a punter phone and always turn off once I enter the building

Sorry to hear about your experience, however, I think they have to give you their Garda I.D numbers and names if they take property off you like your phone. I got nabbed coming out of a place about 16 years ago and was asked to talk to them ,which I did. They took notes and made me sign a statement in the car,also they gave me their names and station details. Thankfully I never heard from them again, however it was mentioned in the papers about the operation. You are entitled to have their names and I.D no matter what. Just my experience that I will remember.

[The Libertarian]

Real classy of them to use the topic of human trafficking to try and trick you into a confession
real classy

And there was also -
Completely unjustifiable. aggression
Verbal abuse
A probable illegal search leading to a most likely illegal snatching of a phone
Well that's our pigz for ya!

[bmw528]

And there was also -
Completely unjustifiable. aggression
Verbal abuse
A probable illegal search leading to a most likely illegal snatching of a phone
Well that's our pigz for ya!

They were polite enough to me at that time, however they got their point across .

[SteveB]

BigBen deserves to be thanked for this post and for informing us what happened.

Does need good legal advice. It is easy to be a keyboard warrior here, but I do thing the guards are "chancing their arm" here and have conducted an illegal interview that was carried out without legal representation and was not even carried out under caution. Did you even sign anything? Hopefully not, but even if you did, I would have thought it would not stand up in court under the circumstances.

They are also trying to hold your phone hostage (!!!WTF!!) so that you go to the station so they can carry out further (illegal?) interviews. Is your phone legally seized, did they give you a receipt and paper work for it, or is it actually stolen? They may claim your phone is not stolen because you gave it to them voluntarily and they are not "permanently depriving you of it" but they are requiring you to take action to recover it and a argument could be made that it was taken from you dishonestly.

Ideal situation would be that your solicitor goes to the station and recovers the phone for you. Going there yourself may not be a good idea. If you do, demand your phone back and nothing else.

Looks like a case that has happened before. Case based completely on intimidation. If the situation you outlined in the original post was outlined in a court, I don't think the court would be too impressed. I am convinced no guard would want such a thing to see the light of day. However, if they can intimidate someone into just turning up at court in response to a summons,, as has happened before, and pleading guilty, they don't have to prove anything and their questionable (and worse) behaviour and disregard for the criminal law and good practice will not be exposed. As I said before, easy to be a "keyboard warrior" but that is my take on it.

TL;DR GET SOME COMPETENT LEGAL ADVICE!!!

[Chez]

I visited a lady last week in this place but the next day I was passing by the apartments and noticed a Garda Ford courier van and car,I pulled over on the road and watched, Saw them taking two ladies out and a guy, he definitely was not Irish.
Place is now closed but its been going 10 years and raided before many times and lots of the great girls from here have stayed there. Another one 20 miles away is the same story
So are the Guards having a quiet word with the Owners ? Had great times there in the past

[SteveB]

I have had some run-ins with the guards as well, although not recently. Maybe when I have a bit of time to post properly, I will post what happened.

I would suspect, from my own experiences, and those of others, BigBen's case is going nowhere and he will probably hear no more about it.

[sibbald]

Abusive behaviour by Guards so it feels like they were under pressure to get results. Given the resources spent was the return on investment worth it?
Only needs for one prosecution to fail for legality and constitutionally of this to be revealed.
Lessons learned..
Use punting phone.
Scout around for 2 - 3 persons sitting in a car near to your desired location.

[Jinxed]

Does everyone hear the words they type. Nobody is giving any regard to the fact that there could be controlled girls being forced to have sex with random men like yourselves. All you care about is that there are girls there to have sex with when you feel like it.

You're putting Ben on a pedestal, a true hero for the way he handled it.

Why would the guards be polite to you. You don't deserve it. You're breaking the law and you don't give a shit so long as you get your jollies. Those guards know you will pay and fuck a trafficked girl without a care in the world.

You're feeding criminal activities whether you like it or not. There is no way you have never been with a trafficked girl.

Not one person said so far that although they don't agree with the guards, if they save some controlled girls well then something good will come of this. Everyone just cares the can use an escort at their leisure.

When the shit hits the fan people show their true colors, all everyone cares about is themselves and their illegal sex. Nobody showed any consideration for the girls or their welfare in general.

Disgraceful self serving behavior.

[RayDonovan]

Ideal situation would be that your solicitor goes to the station and recovers the phone for you.

Punting phone, hardly worth the bother at this point. BigBen seems to have his head screwed on well anyway, he handled it well so far. I'd say that's as far as it will go with him.

The "We're just concerned about the girl's welfare was the same line they used on the 60 year old who was prosecuted, except he co operated with them on hearing that, and confessed everything.

It's sad that they're using this line as entrapment because it will be decent lads who will get themselves in trouble trying to help the guards, and scum won't care.

Easy to say from a keyboard but the guards should be told "shouldn't you be over there arresting these violent pimps so?"

Thanks to the OP BigBen anyway, very helpful post.