Platinum coffins and luxury cars: Vulgar displays of wealth by crime gangs eyed up by CAB

Platinum coffins, champagne, and luxury cars just some of the extravagances catalogued by gardaí

The funeral of David Byrne, who was shot dead in the Regency Hotel in February 2016: The funeral cortege boasted two hearses and 10 stretched limousines, and three horse-drawn carts carrying floral tributes, Picture: Colin Keegan/Collins

The vulgar display of wealth on display in working-class Dublin was shocking, if not surprising.

Regency Hotel victim David Byrne’s funeral cortege boasted two hearses and 10 stretched limousines. Each of the limos cost €450 for the day.

Gardaí had to mount a considerable operation, led by senior officers, to escort the convoy from Raleigh Square in Crumlin, down Kildare Road and across the Grand Canal and into the south inner city.

Inside one of the hearses was a platinum casket, carrying an €17,000 price tag.

Locals and passersby stood in amazement as the cortege, accompanied by three horse-drawn carts carrying floral tributes, snaked its way through the heartland of the Byrne organised crime group.

A brand-new Garda car led the procession, with two ERU Landcruisers and a marked Garda van bringing up the rear.

The Mass was held on February 15, 2016, in the home patch of Byrne’s mother, Sadie Roe, at St Nicolas of Myra on Francis Street.

The sight of a who’s who of the Kinahan leadership and the Byrne group wearing black suits and ties teamed with blue shirts, many sporting shades, was akin to a mafia event.

The contrast to the low-key and low-cost funeral of Eddie Hutch in the north inner city later that week could not have been sharper.

The display of wealth by David and Liam Byrne was not new for locals over the previous years, as the brothers regularly drove around in flash monster jeeps and luxurious cars.

David Byrne was buried in a platinum casket worth €17,000. Picture: Colin Keegan/ Collins 

An insight into the wealth became clear with a joint Criminal Asset Bureau and Crumlin Garda search, codenamed Operation Lamb, a month after David Byrne’s funeral.

Six houses in a tight triangle of adjoining roads — Raleigh Square, Windmill Road and the junction with Kildare Road — formed the beating heart of the Byrne crime group. They comprised Liam Byrne’s house on 2 Raleigh Square (shared with partner Simoan McEnroe), his parents’ house on 18 Raleigh Square, 33A and 33B Windmill Road, owned by Liam’s sister Maria, David Byrne’s house on 213 Kildare Road (partner Kelly Quinn) and Sean McGovern’s house on 213 Kildare Road (partner Anita Freeman).

The affidavit by Crumlin gardaí listed out the cars Liam Byrne had been collated as being in since February 2014, including top the range Audis, Mercedes, BMWs and Range Rovers, one of them a Range Rover “Autobiography”. When asked by gardaí in June 2015 about this jeep, he told them it was fresh off the boat and worth €150,000.

This affidavit said the Byrne organised crime group was formed locally around a “core family unit”, which it said was the Roe family: Liam and David’s mother was Sadie Roe, Freddie and Richie Thompson’s mother was Sadie’s sister, Elizabeth, Liam Roe was son of Sadie’s brother James, Liam Brannigan’s mother was Sadie’s sister Colette, Eoin O’Connor’s mother was Sadie’s sister Terese Mary.

Also a feature was wives and partners had siblings who were significant figures in the group — and almost all lived in Crumlin, Drimnagh, or the south inner city.

The Crumlin Garda affidavit said this was a “tight knit” organised crime group and added: “Gardaí have encountered particular difficulties in penetrating the gang due to strong family loyalties and links.” 

The search on Liam Byrne’s house attracted most attention. CAB described it as “heavily fortified”. They had to hire specialist machinery to tear out electric gates from pillars as they could not open them. Angle grinders had to be used to open the reinforced front door, which had a 15-point locking system, at an estimated cost of €7,000.

Inside the large house, with a double-storey extension (which did not have planning permission), they found a safe room, a gym, a games room, a jacuzzi, sunken bath and an indoor bar with 20 bottles of Dom Perignon.

In an updated statement on CAB operations against the Kinahan group provided to the Irish Examiner for this article, CAB said more than 48 assets were taken from the Byrne crime group.

These included: 23 vehicles; six motorcycles; one dune buggy; two electric bicycles; five watches (Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Breitling brands); two diamond rings; four cash sums, and a bank account containing funds of €36,760 and homes at 2 Raleigh Square, 219 Kildare Road and 40 Grangeview, Clondalkin [Liam Byrne’s].

The CAB statement said this landmark operation was one of a number of “successful cases targeting criminal assets linked to members of the Kinahan OCG”.

These nine concluded cases are: Liam Byrne/Sean McGovern and Family; Daniel Kinahan/Thomas Kavanagh/James Mansfield; Peng Fei He/Ciaran O’Sullivan and others; Ross Browning; Trevor Chubb; Graham Whelan; Ben Lyons; Michael Keating aka Marcus Lane/Adam Keatinge; Paul Gray.

The case involving Daniel Kinahan, Thomas Byrne and James Mansfield concluded in October 2022 and centred around a plush five-bedroom residence in Saggart, west Dublin. The High Court heard it was sold for €2m in 2006. It is the first CAB case against Daniel Kinahan.

The case involving Peng Fei He and Ciaran Sam O’Sullivan began in 2020 and concluded in 2025 and targeted a Chinese organised crime group, based in Crumlin and led by Fei He.

James 'Mago' Gately, a member of the Hutch gang, was shot and injured near Dublin Airport in May 2017. It was reported at the time the shooting was linked to the Kinahan-Hutch feud. Picture: Eamonn Farell / RollingNews.ie

It was an international money laundering operation and allowed the Kinahan cartel, and other gangs, to store cash in the restaurant and take out an equivalent amount, minus fee, in another country.

CAB said it was an “effective underground banking network” and their officers recovered more than €700,000 cash in self-storage units, seized €120,000 in bank accounts and seized five vehicles.

Another major CAB case centred around Ross Browning, a major cartel figure in Ireland.

Proceeds of crime action against Browning, originally from Hardwicke Street Flats in Dublin’s north inner city, and others, led to the confiscation of 18 assets, estimated to be worth more than1.5m.

They comprised: a property in Finglas and a sprawling property; lands and buildings at Garristown, north county Dublin; two other parcels of land; five vehicles; two luxury gents watches and two luxury female watches and a diamond solitaire ring.

In the remaining cases:

• In separate operations against Trevor Chubb, addresses in Drimnagh and adjacent Inchicore, €39,000 in cash, €60,000 in bank accounts, five luxury watches and five luxury cars were seized;
• €75,000 in a bank account was taken from Graham Whelan, from Crumlin, with an address in neighbouring Walkinstown;
• €53,000 cash and a Range Rover Sport was taken from businessman Ben Lyons, who sold gold phones to celebrities and was accused by CAB of being engaged in money laundering for the Kinahans;
• CAB took a house at Ellistown, Co Kildare, five gold bars, an Audi and €5,000 in cash from Michael Keating, aka Adam Keatinge, a convicted drug dealer and DJ;
• CAB seized a house at 18 Mallin Avenue, Rialto, from Paul Gray, who the agency linked to the Kinahan cartel and to Liam Byrne The CAB statement said: “The above listed nine cases progressed by the Criminal Assets Bureau targeted significant members of the Kinahan/Byrne OCG since the murder of David Byrne at the Regency hotel on the February 5, 2016."

It said CAB previously targeted other significant members of the Byrne/Kinahan organised crime group, including Andrew Murray, Laurence Keane and Thomas Kavanagh.

“The nine significant cases progressed since the Regency attack evidence CAB’s ability to respond in a timely and focused manner to the threat posed by a single, well-organised and well-resourced organised crime group,” the statement said.

The most well-known of the CAB cases against the Hutch crime network (apart from the historical ones against the Monk over his armed robbery fortune) relates to the seizure of James ‘Mago’ Gately’s house in Coolock, north Dublin. Last November, that sold at auction for more than €300,000.

The CAB statement said there were other cases ongoing against the Hutch network: “With regard to actions targeting members of the Hutch OCG, there are cases in addition to the Gately case, however, these investigations are currently live.”