The Special Criminal Court has found a 37-year-old man guilty of being at the “centre of the wheel” of a Kinahan cartel plot to gun down Dublin man Gary Hanley.
Liam Brannigan (37) from Bride Street, Dublin 8, was on Monday convicted of conspiring to murder Mr Hanley at a location within the State between September 15th and November 6th, 2017. Brannigan had pleaded not guilty.
Mr Justice Paul Coffey said the evidence against Brannigan derived from four areas, including covert audio recordings from several cars bugged by gardaí. Armed gardaí intercepted a Volkswagen caddy van just 500 yards from Mr Hanley’s home on the night of November 6th, 2017, when two men, Joseph Kelly and Luke Wilson, were found with a loaded semi-automatic pistol.
The evidence also included phone data extracted from the co-conspirators’ phones and the “interconnectivity” of these phones; sightings of the men by gardaí; and a montage of CCTV footage showing their movements, he said.
Four men, Joseph Kelly, Luke Wilson, Alan Wilson and Dean Howe, have previously all pleaded guilty to the same offence. Brannigan, who appeared in court on Monday, nodded when Mr Justice Paul Coffey finished reading out his verdict.
Luke Wilson (24), from Cremona Road in Ballyfermot, Dublin, and Joseph Kelly (35) of Kilworth Road, Drimnagh, Dublin 12, were stopped by armed gardaí just after 8pm on November 6th, 2017, after their bugged Volkswagen caddy was stopped on Philipsburgh Avenue.
Mr Justice Coffey, reading his judgment, said almost immediately after the men were stopped, they could be heard on an audio recording, saying “It’s the old bill, we’re set up, we’re set up”.
The court previously heard that during that arrest, gardaí seized a 9mm Beretta semi-automatic pistol, a silencer, 15 rounds of 9mm ammunition, several phones, a rucksack and a container of petrol.
Moments before their arrest, Kelly and Wilson had collected the rucksack containing the gun, silencer and ammunition from a cyclist whom they met in a Lidl car park in Glasnevin, the court heard.
The court heard that, before collecting the gun, Kelly took directions about where to collect the weapon during phone calls with a phone referred to as PB3. The user of the PB3 phone was previously referred to as “Mr PB3” by the prosecution.
Mr Justice Coffey said, at one point, Kelly relayed a conversation he had with Mr PB3 to Luke Wilson, telling Wilson there was a “set of apartments” nearby and “he’s going to get yer man to walk down”. This conversation, the court heard, was moments before they collected the gun from the cyclist.
It also heard that Mr PB3 had shared numerous phone calls with phones attributed to Luke Wilson, Joseph Kelly and Alan Wilson on the night of November 6th, 2017, and that Mr PB3 sought numerous “progress reports” from the men at a “critical phase of the conspiracy”.
Mr Justice Coffey said there was “no doubt” that Mr PB3 “had an agreement” with the other men to murder Gary Hanley. He said it’s clear Mr PB3 had a “central role” in the management and operation of the kill plot.
The court previously saw CCTV footage of Brannigan’s arrest at Hanover Court, Dublin 8, on November 6th, 2017, less than 20 minutes after the arrest of Luke Wilson and Joseph Kelly. It heard the CCTV footage showed Brannigan throwing “an illuminated item” into the air seconds before his arrest.
On Monday, Mr Justice Coffey said it was “overwhelmingly probable” that the object Brannigan threw was the PB3 phone and that he discarded it “because he was the person who used it” to speak with his co-conspirators in the Volkswagen caddy that night. He said it was an “attempt to discard incriminating evidence before he was apprehended by gardaí”.
Seán Gillane SC, for the State, previously told the court the PB3 phone put Brannigan at the “centre of the wheel” of the kill plot.
Luke Wilson, Joseph Kelly and Alan Wilson (39) of New Street Gardens, Dublin 8 have all been jailed. Dean Howe (34) of Oakfield, Dublin 8, will be sentenced on March 3rd.
Luke Wilson, who also pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a Beretta, was jailed for 11 years; Alan Wilson was given six years and Joseph Kelly, who also admitted a weapons charge, was jailed for 12 years. Brannigan will be sentenced on February 24th.