Crime boss’s lavish wedding a sick blow to his victims, says SF councillor

A TOP gang boss suspected of carrying out a spate of lucrative robberies of cash transit vans and ATMs hired a helicopter to fly him to his wedding in north Dublin, it emerged yesterday.

Local activists in Finglas, north Dublin, said the criminal’s brazen display of wealth was a kick in the teeth to the community.

As well as carrying out armed heists, the gang boss and his younger brother are suspected of supplying drugs and guns to Finglas, Cabra and Blanchardstown.

“It’s a joke, a bloody joke,” said Sinn Féin councillor Dessie Ellis. “How many kids have they left behind, dead and strung out, him and his brother?

“He hires a helicopter and is flown over to the hotel to have a big wedding. It’s a sick blow to the people of Finglas.”

The gang boss, in his early 30s, booked an extravagant wedding for 120 people at the four-star Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links in north Dublin.

Some 20 members of the immediate family stayed over in the plush hotel, which is part-owned by media magnate Tony O’Reilly and his wife.

The hotel, overlooking Portmarnock Beach and boasting an 18-hole Bernhard Langer-designed golf links, is used by the Irish soccer squad.

The wedding took place last Saturday on the day of the Dublin versus Kerry All-Ireland Football quarter final, which many guests watched in the hotel bar.

A security source said they had tipped off the hotel in advance about their guest and that there was no trouble at the wedding.

The gang boss flew from his plush pad in Navan, Co Meath, which is protected by electronic gates and security cameras. The criminal does not work and has no known legitimate means of income.

Gardaí say his gang is one of three top gangs targeted by gardaí as part of Operation Delivery, which brings together the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Emergency Response Unit, the Criminal Assets Bureau and local detective units.

CAB is understood to be carrying out an assessment of the man’s wealth, including an audit of his properties, cars and accounts.

The brothers have been linked with nearly e3 million worth of robberies from security transit vans and ATMs.

Mr Ellis said he was very annoyed the crime boss had been able to expand his criminal empire over the past 15 years.

“We are now seeing concentration on him after the ATM robberies, but for years he and his brother were dealing drugs and no resources were put into dealing with them.

“I made representations at all levels to the guards about him, but nothing was done.”