Wily detectives will always look for the financial imperative – “the pay element”, as one source calls it – when gangland violence claims another life.
Some attacks are carried out because the perpetrators convinced themselves it simply has to happen. For example, senior criminal figures need to send a message about what befalls anyone who can’t, or simply refuses, to pay a drugs debt.
A powerful gang will occasionally need to demonstrate its willingness and ability to retaliate with murderous violence when anyone seriously challenges its core for-profit enterprises or its members’ safety. And there is no better way for organised gangs to project power – and rule by fear – than leaving somebody dead in the street.
Other criminals are simply unpredictable and wild, with a propensity for extreme violence, and will kill on a whim. But look deep enough, for long enough, and the primary motive for most gangland killings will be financial.
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The shooting dead of notorious Dublin criminal Robbie Lawlor – a paid hitman, drug dealer and debt collector – is a case in point. A fascinating document has emerged outlining the alleged planning of the killing, and the economics that underpinned it.
A three-way coalition is set out in the document, though it is suspected up to 20 people were involved in the conspiracy, including those playing minor, or supporting, roles. The primary movers stood to gain financially because debts they owed would die with Lawlor, or would be cancelled as a reward for his murder.
This was a “drop-the-debt” killing, so to speak. It is alleged the main criminal faction in Sligo and one of Dublin’s biggest drug dealers – who both owed Lawlor money – came together to put in place the murder plan. In turn, those men from Sligo and Dublin were owed money from Belfast criminals, who agreed to aid the murder conspiracy if their debts were cancelled.
The Dublin criminal was also heavily aligned with the opposing faction in the Drogheda feud and stood to make money if Lawlor was removed from the Drogheda scene.
To add another layer of debt write-off motivation, one of the Belfast criminals also owed Lawlor money and was in the process of paying him. And it was at one of those meet-ups that one of the Republic drug scene’s most notorious killings took place; in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast.
Lawlor was a 36-year-old father originally from Coolock, Dublin, though he had relocated to Laytown, Co Meath, for the final years of his life. He was the chief suspect in a number of gangland attacks, including five murders over a 15-year period to 2020.
While Lawlor was in prison in November 2019, awaiting trial for a shooting, his brother-in-law Richard Carberry was shot dead outside his home in Bettystown, Co Meath. Lawlor and Carberry had left their native Dublin and settled in Co Meath. They were heavily involved in the drugs scene in Louth and Meath; Carberry was a criminal manager and Lawlor a killer and notorious enforcer.
When the biggest gang in Drogheda, Co Louth, split, Carberry saw money to be made. He supported a group of young men who had broken away from the main gang intent on taking on its leaders, in a dispute that became known as the Drogheda feud.
[ Drogheda feud timeline: main events so farOpens in new window ]
Carberry mentored them and invested in them. He gave them money, drugs and guns. He believed they would take control of the local drugs scene. He would be the biggest beneficiary of their work on the front lines; selling drugs and meting out the violence that came with keeping control.
However, Carberry was gunned down as part of the Drogheda feud. And when Lawlor emerged from prison four weeks later, having been acquitted of attempted murder, he put word about that anyone who had owed Carberry money for drugs now owed it to him.
During that time, immediately after his December 2019 acquittal and release from prison, Lawlor was attacked on the street by a group of young men, who punched him and stole his bag containing his kit as he left a gym. Those young criminals were linked to Lawlor’s enemies in both Dublin and Drogheda.
They dressed in the sports clothing and flip flops they stole from Lawlor, taking photographs and videos of themselves for sharing around social media to taunt him.
In a bid to re-establish himself, perhaps to overcome the humiliation, Lawlor decided to lure a young Drogheda criminal – Keane Mulready-Woods (17) – to a house in the town in January 2020. Mulready-Woods, who was on the opposing side to Lawlor and Carberry in the Drogheda feud, was murdered and his remains dismembered.
His limbs were dumped in a bag in Coolock, with flip flops inside, as a message to the young Coolock men who had attacked Lawlor outside the gym.
The 36-year-old then took himself off to Belfast, apparently in the mistaken belief the heat generated by the teenager’s murder, which shocked the country, would dissipate. From Belfast, he continued to make efforts to collect debts owed to his murdered brother-in-law, Carberry. And he also worked as a debt collector for Belfast-based dealers.
Those men who he was trying to collect money from, it is now alleged in a legal document related to the case, got together to murder him. Legal constraints are in place at present around naming some of those involved. So let’s refer to the main players as ‘Dublin’, ‘Sligo’ and ‘Belfast 1′.
The Dublin criminal is a major figure nationally on the drugs scene. The Sligo criminal is the leader of a significant drugs gang and is currently in prison for directing organised crime.
The legal document has been generated by law enforcement in the North in a bid to secure the extradition of one of the suspects for the Lawlor murder. It explains Carberry was “involved in the supply of drugs” and when he was shot Lawlor “decided to take over the debts owed to Carberry”.
“‘Dublin’ is considered to be a significant figure in the organised crime gangs within the Republic of Ireland and in an opposing faction of the [Drogheda] feud to Lawlor. It is believed his criminal enterprise also reaches into Northern Ireland and to the organised crime gangs within this jurisdiction,” the document states.
It also describes the criminal from Sligo as a “known associate” of the criminal from Belfast, both of whom are alleged to have been the prime movers, with ‘Dublin’, in the murder of Lawlor.
“‘Sligo’ is understood to have owed money to Carberry in relation to his criminal activities and was aware that Lawlor would now be seeking the money owed,” the document states. “It is believed that both ‘Dublin’ and ‘Sligo’ stood to gain financially by the murder of Lawlor.
“It is believed that ‘Belfast’ may have owed a substantial debt to ‘Dublin’, who agreed with ‘Sligo’ that if ‘Belfast’ assisted with the plan to murder Lawlor that the debt would be cancelled.”
The document adds the Sligo and Belfast criminals met in the Sligo Park Hotel on March 16th, 2020, three weeks before the murder, “when it is believed that this arrangement [to cancel drug debts] was discussed.”
The day before the murder, it is alleged the Belfast criminal met Lawlor at a car park outside Belfast. At that meeting, some money was paid to Lawlor. There was an arrangement made for Lawlor to call to an address in Ardoyne the following day where the Belfast criminal would pay him another tranche of money, and give him a Mercedes, to settle the debt.
“The following day when Lawlor arrived as arranged and approached the front garden ... witnesses state that an unknown person wearing dark clothing and some sort of scarf to disguise their face exited the front door ... with a firearm. Lawlor was shot several times at close range and died at the scene.”
In a further twist, members of Limerick’s notorious McCarthy-Dundon gang, who were friends and allies of Lawlor, were seen with him, including around his flat in Belfast city centre, in the days leading up to the murder. The Dundon gang acted as muscle for Lawlor; offering backup when he needed it and helping to protect him from the rival faction in Drogheda that wanted him dead.
Three men linked to the McCarthy-Dundon grouping were arrested in Belfast shortly after the murder on the morning of Saturday, April 4th, 2020. They were released without charge by the PSNI. No evidence has ever emerged linking them to the killing, even though one of the men drove Lawlor to Ardoyne where he walked into the murder trap.
Two days later, on April 6th, two women with close links to the McCarthy-Dundons were arrested in Portlaoise having collected €50,000 in a bag from men at a service station off the M7. It is suspected that money was payment for assistance in the Lawlor murder.
However, there is no suggestion the women were involved in the killing or knew why the money they were collecting was being paid to them.
After the murders of Carberry, and then Lawlor, the substantial money owed to Carberry for the drugs and guns he supplied was never paid. There was nobody left, with the muscle required, to collect the debts from the type of men who owed it.
