Members of the Kinahan cartel were paid €20,000 for “setting people up for a hit”, it was claimed on Friday.
The Special Criminal Court was told about audio surveillance of a conversation between a woman and one of the suspects in a failed plot to murder Patrick “Patsy” Hutch.
It picked up the lines “they have so much money, they could buy half the Hutch lads” and “they’re getting €20,000 and all for setting somebody up, used to get that for doing the hit”.
During a sentence hearing for Michael Burns, Ciaran O’Driscoll and Stephen Curtis, evidence was given that gardai recovered a written record of the finances of the Kinahan gang sub-cell from a suspect’s address.
This breakdown of the expenses of the operation to murder Mr Hutch – the older brother of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch – detailed a “starting balance” of €7,000 and recorded how “logistical costs” ended up in excess of €10,000.
In a related sentence hearing on Thursday, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the court accepted Garda evidence that the Kinahan organised crime gang is involved in “execution-type murders” to protect its core activities, which include drugs and firearms offences on “an international scale”. The court further accepted the group operated “an organised hierarchical structure” with “cells and sub-cells”
to “segregate activities and limit knowledge” among members.
The gang operated on directions from superiors within this hierarchy.
Michael Burns, 43, of no fixed abode, Ciaran O’Driscoll, 25, of Avondale House, Cumberland Street, Dublin, and 32-year-old Stephen Curtis, of Bellman’s Walk, Seville Place, also in the capital, have admitted helping the Kinahan cartel to try and murder Mr Hutch between February 1 and March 10, 2018.
At yesterday’s hearing, Det Supt David Gallagher said the investigation involved a combination of features including manual surveillance, audio surveillance, the harvesting of CCTV footage and phones. He explained there had been 10 people involved in the murder plot.
O’Driscoll’s role had been to act as a “look-out” for Mr Hutch while Curtis had sourced the mobile phones and credit which were ultimately to be used by the “hit-team”.
Burns’ job was to supervise others in relation to the planning and overall surveillance.
Justice Hunt remanded the three men in custody until June 29, when they will be sentenced.
