Word: murtagh
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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None of these events was made public at the time. But last October, Peter Murtagh, a reporter for the Irish Times, talked to Tully, who had successfully appealed his transfer, and published details of the attempted coverup. That produced an anonymous tip that the police, on the orders of Haughey's Fianna Fail government, were tapping the telephones of journalists. Murtagh followed up the story and found that Doherty, in an effort to stem embarrassing reports about internal party squabbles, had placed bugs on the phones of two of Dublin's top political reporters. It was also discovered...
...sailing orders are sealed. Only the skipper. Commander Michael Murtagh, 40, and his executive officer, Lieut. Commander Andy Anderson, 33, know where Dauntless is headed. On this patrol, Murtagh's destination is the 135-mile-wide Yucatan Channel off Mexico's southeast coast. That is where, the captain has been told, he has the best opportunity to intercept a large shipment of U.S.-bound marijuana. Once past the channel, a smuggler has an excellent chance of reaching Florida or Louisiana, whose labyrinthine coastal waterways provide concealment for off-loading the precious cargo into smaller, speedier boats known...
...against the smugglers, the odds are against Murtagh and his men. "The druggers have very good equipment for pinpointing our presence," says Murtagh. For every ship like Dauntless, the drug runners have a flotilla. Moreover, Dauntless has nothing to match the sophisticated satellite navigational gear routinely found on the smugglers' ships. "Even before we begin," Murtagh says, "I assume they are tracking...
...Bingo," says Murtagh. Looking through his own binoculars he finds the target, a 68-ft.-long shrimper. It is within Mexico's twelve-mile boundary waters, so Dauntless cannot take up pursuit without authorization from the Coast Guard's 7th District, headquartered in Miami. Murtagh breaks radio silence to ask permission and mutters, "John Paul Jones didn't have to put up with all of this...
...bridge of Dauntless, Captain Murtagh orders the 41st marijuana leaf painted on the mast. "There is at least one thing we prove," he says, sipping from his ever present cup of black coffee. "They don't all get through...