Two Dublin gunmen jailed in separate organised crime cases

Updated / Monday, 21 Dec 2020 14:11

Two Dublin gunmen have been jailed in separate cases at the Special Criminal Court.  

Trevor Byrne, 40, from Cappagh Road in Finglas, who previously pointed a gun at gardaí was sent to prison for nine years  while 32-year-old Bernard Fogarty, from Hole in the Wall Road in Donaghmede, was jailed for five years. 

The court head that Fogarty is “heavily involved in organised crime”.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the court cannot ignore the damage done by gun crime.

The head of An Garda Síochana’s Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, Detective Chief Superintendent Angela Willis, said the convictions will keep people and communities safe.

Byrne was caught with a loaded 9mm Luger and magazine, gloves, hold-all and balaclava. Over €3,000 was also found in his pocket.

Gardaí believe he was preparing to shoot a major rival Dublin criminal. 

He refused to comply with gardaí when found sitting on a sofa on the gun in a ‘Seomra’ room at the back of a house in Clondalkin in November last year and had to be arrested at gunpoint. 

Byrne has 40 previous convictions, including armed robbery and pointing a gun at gardaí and was arrested and questioned about the Kinahan feud murder in 2016 of Eddie Hutch, the brother of the rival Hutch gang leader Gerard Hutch. Today he was jailed for nine years. 

Fogarty admitted possession of a RAK sub machine gun gardaí found in the passenger footwell of a car stopped in Shankill last March.  

The court heard that Fogarty is “heavily involved in organised crime”.

He also has 40 previous convictions and has links to the Kinahan gang and to the ongoing criminal feud in Coolock which has so far cost five lives. He was jailed today for five years.

Both men were linked to the weapons by DNA. 

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the court cannot ignore the damage done by gun crime.

The head of An Garda Síochana’s Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, Detective Chief Superintendent Angela Willis, said the convictions will keep people and communities safe.