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A nine-man team from the Kinahan cartel has been jailed for a total of 80 years for attempting to assassinate Patsy Hutch.
Gardai has vowed to continue to hunt down the cartel bosses after dismantling the killer cell.
The cell’s leader, Patrick Curtis, was jailed for 10 years for leading the frustrated coup against The Monk’s older brother.
Cartel soldier Mohammed Smew received seven and a half years for helping to provide escape vehicles.
The 27-year-old from Milner’s Square, Shanowen Road, Santry, Dublin 9 was supposed to be a member of the strike team until he was arrested for looting a Centra store in Tallaght during Storm Emma in March 2018.
Smew used a sledgehammer to crash into the supermarket during snowstorms.
He was jailed for 18 months for looting after a court heard that he came from an extremely respectable family of well-educated professionals and that there was nothing in his record to explain his conduct.
Letters and testimonies had been delivered from Smew’s family, friends, and from a university where he had a place in a course.
Curtis, 38, of Bellman’s Walk, Seville Place, Dublin 1 is one of two groups of brothers incarcerated for one of the boldest assassination plots in the Kinahan-Hutch dispute.
He led the cell and was heard on secret recordings boasting that the cartel had enough money to buy half the Hutch clan to shoot the other half.
The court heard that he took his orders from a mysterious ‘Mr Big’ known as ‘Lordnose’.
The gang even kept a cash expense “budget” for the murder offer of Patsy Hutch, whose son Patrick was acquitted of the murder of David Byrne in the attack on the Regency Hotel.
Curtis admitted to running the activities of a criminal organization, one of the first times anti-gang law has been used.
Smew pleaded guilty to providing, moving and repairing vehicles, and planning or assisting in the attempted shooting between February 1, 2018 and March 3, 2018.
In Special Criminal Court, Judge Tony Hunt accepted that a specific sub-cell of the Kinahan Cartel had been formed with the sole aim of assassinating 59-year-old Patsy Hutch.
Judge Hunt said there was no question that Curtis knew he was running the sub-cell on behalf of the Kinahan organized crime group, which he called “an insidious organization.”
At the sentencing hearing it was said that Patrick Curtis suffers from irrational behavior and blesses himself about 60 times a day to compensate for negative thoughts.
He is also severely claustrophobic and now shares a cell in Block A of Portlaoise Prison with his brother Stephen, who was another member of the cell.
(Image: Getty)
In response to a request from attorney Michael O’Higgins for leniency for his mental health issues, Judge Hunt said not conspiring to murder other people would have been the best way to avoid a long period behind bars.
He established a main sentence of 16 years with a 25 percent discount for his guilty plea. The juryless court imposed a final sentence of 12 years with the last two years suspended.
In sentencing Smew, Judge Hunt observed that the evidence unequivocally established that he assisted in the preparations for the “very serious crime of murder” and was initially prepared to serve on the “front line of murder” until his arrest during the murder. storm Emma. .
“There is no doubt that Smew’s conduct was of considerable assistance to the Kinahan organized crime group during the duration of his involvement,” the judge said.
Smew was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison with the last nine months suspended.
Seven other members of the cell have already been incarcerated for a variety of roles in the plot:
-Michael Burns, 43, homeless, was jailed for nine years for giving instructions to one or more members of a criminal organization and acting as a conduit for communications by providing telephones. He also admitted to transporting one or more members of the cell and moving one or more vehicles to use in the planned shooting.
-Stephen Curtis, 32, of Bellman’s Walk, Seville Place, Dublin 1 – Patrick Curtis’ younger brother – was sentenced to five years. He bought nine cell phones, SIM cards, and credit for the gang.
-Ciaran O’Driscoll, 25, of Avondale House, Cumberland Street, Dublin 1 was sentenced to five years for agreeing to act as a lookout near Hutch’s home.
-Mark Capper, 31, Cappagh Green, in Finglas, Dublin 11 was destined to be a hit man, but withdrew from the plot. He was jailed for seven and a half years for helping the organized crime group by providing and repairing vehicles and conducting reconnaissance.
– Gary Thompson, domiciled at Plunkett Green in Finglas, Dublin 11, his brother Glen Thompson, of Plunkett Drive, also in Finglas, and Robert Browne, of Phibsboro Road in Phibsboro, Dublin 7 were to be the attack team. They admitted illegal possession of four firearms with the intent to endanger life at Belmont Hall Apartments, Gardiner Street, Dublin 1 on March 10, 2018. The four firearms included a Rak 9mm submachine gun, a. 38 Special Caliber Rossi Make Revolver and a 9mm. Beretta 92 semiautomatic pistol and Makarov 9mm semiautomatic pistol.
The cartel plot had three phases. The first was to establish a “parking spot” at the Belmont apartments, within walking distance of the target’s home.
The second was a “ruse” to commit criminal damage to a car to lure Mr. Hutch from his home to the crime scene. An “observer” would signal the shooters when he was on his way.
The third element was to have an “escape location” on Stoney Road on the East Wall in Dublin 3 where the gunmen would go through a pedestrian tunnel and another car would be waiting on the other side to take them away.
Detective Superintendent Angela Willis, head of the Bureau of Drugs and Organized Crime, said the dismantling of the cell had saved lives.
“The convictions for participating and directing organized crime, as well as the convictions for possession of firearms demonstrate our determination to target those who are willing to participate in organized crime at all levels,” he said.
“I want to assure you that An Garda Siochana continues to target those who use violence in our society.”
Searches of the homes of gang members led to a written record of the financial expenses of the coup.
Detectives found a sheet with an opening balance of € 7,000. He noted that € 6,500 was spent, including € 2,000 for O’Driscoll, € 1,000 for Burns, € 750 more for Burns, € 500 for phones, € 400 on credit, € 200 for diesel and € 40 for wheel repair.
The logistics costs exceeded € 10,000 and did not include the cost of paying for cars, vans or weapons.
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