Gang boss Cornelius Price to be laid to rest in UK next week as cops on high alert

“There has been a lot of speculation that he was going to be brought back to be Ireland to be buried but this was always highly unlikely,” a source said.

Fri 3 Mar 2023 at 15:26

The funeral of notorious gang boss Cornelius Price is due to take place in England early next week, it can be revealed.

It is understood that family members of the 41-year-old will be finalising plans at the weekend for the funeral which is expected to take place in Rochdale in greater Manchester.

The criminal who was directly linked to at least four gruesome murders, died 12 days ago in a Welsh hospital from complications linked to a severe brain condition called limbic encephalitis which he had suffered from since October, 2021 and had left him comatose.

“There has been a lot of speculation that he was going to be brought back to be Ireland to be buried but this was always highly unlikely,” a source said.

“For one thing because of the many evil things that he had done in his life, there was a very real prospect that some of his enemies might try to dig up his body if it was buried here,” the source added.

The funeral revelation comes despite footage appearing on a TikTok video on Tuesday night showing people gathered by the side of the road with flags and banners paying tribute to the gangster ahead of his funeral.

One sign – reading ‘back to home turf’ – can be seen on social media surrounded by balloons and floral tributes while an Irish tricolour depicts the words, ‘beloved uncle rest in peace’.

His daughter Alisha wrote on Facebook: “For everyone that’s enquiring about my father Nailyboy Price’s funeral, yes it is taking place in Ireland.

“No matter what anyone else thinks, God knows his heart and that is all that matters.

“Be back in Ireland soon on his own turf for the greatest and biggest send off you’ll ever see. What he deserves.”

It is expected that police in Rochdale will monitor Price’s funeral with a number of his criminal associates expected to attend it.

Drogheda feud gangster Price had been based in the UK since he fled there in the aftermath of the murder of Keane Mulready Woods in January, 2020.

The diabolical plan hatched by the teenager’s murderer Robbie Lawlor, an arch enemy of Price, was to deliver Keane’s decapitated head to the compound where the father-of-two lived.

When he moved back to the UK, Price attempted to set himself up as a “mediator” in criminal disputes in the English midlands as well as carrying out the role of “referee” in bare knuckle boxing contests after he fled Ireland never to return.

Sources say that after arriving in the English midlands – a place where he had always strong links to because of family ties to Rochdale, Price “traded on his name and his infamy” and was able to rely on a strong intergenerational crime structure in England.

“He set himself up as some type of gang boss who was above the level of everyone else – for those few months in 2020, he was trying to resolve disputes with other criminal organisations in the area which is investigated by the West Mercia police force that covers three English counties,” a source said.

“It did not take long for him to pop up on intelligence bulletins there and what was clear was that his reputation was well known to the local criminals who were in fear of him,” the source added.

This reputation was compounded when a video Price was posted on social media celebrating the gun murder of his arch rival Robbie Lawlor in April, 2020 by toasting it with a glass of Captain Morgan’s

The arch criminal told the camera from his UK hideout with a sneer on his face: “Cheers to Robbie Lawlor, rest in peace. He’s not even meant to rest in peace but fair play to you. There you go boy,” Price adds before drinking a shot of the spirit.

But as Price toasted the murder of Lawlor, a fatal shooting that he is suspected of having a degree of involvement in, Price was becoming a bigger target for specialist police in the UK.

Just four months later, a different police constabulary in England had Price and his gang which included notorious Limerick criminal Ger Dundon (37) who had changed his name to Darren McClean and Drogheda feud gangster Mark Kavanagh (34), in their sights.

Staffordshire police set up a major surveillance operation on Price and Dundon’s gang when they became aware of a £300,000 (€343k) blackmail and kidnap plot against alleged rival criminals who were based in London.

They were arrested in July of that year but only Dundon has been convicted in relation to the plot after a lengthy trial that concluded in London in January.

Price was too ill to stand trial with his five alleged associates after he suffered the brain condition and was being treated in a Welsh hospital.

Before he fled Ireland, Price’s gang are suspected of abducting and murdering Willie Maughan (34) and his pregnant Latvian girlfriend, Ana Varslavane, (21) on April 14, 2015, near Price’s compound in Gormanston, Co Meath.

The tragic pair were planning on moving out of the compound to go back to his family home in Tallaght on the day they went missing and are understood to have been brutally murdered because they had key information about the gang’s activities including another murder.

No trace of their bodies has ever been found but they are believed to have been burnt after their gruesome murder.

Price’s mob are also the chief suspects for the unsolved murder of Benny Whitehouse and Price was previously arrested for this crime. Mr Whitehouse was shot dead at Clonard Street, Balbriggan, on September 25, 2014 in front of his partner as part of a separate feud.

His mob are suspects for a sickening incident in August, 2016, when the grave of Willie Maughan’s brother was dug up at at Bohernabreena Cemetery in Tallaght but Price was in jail at the time.

The sinister incident occurred just a day after Michael’s father Joe appealed for information to help find the remains of his son Willie.

He served a three year jail sentence for reckless endangerment of a garda – his most serious criminal stretch.

While serving his sentence he was involved in a number of savage rows and feuds which led him to be transferred to different jails and isolation units.

He was suspected of ordering dozens of attacks against his enemies and perceived rivals including an His mob are suspects for a sickening incident in August, 2016, when the grave of Willie Maughan’s brother incident where he is alleged to have forced a Brazilian inmate to slice up a rival Traveller in a botched attack.

Before being released he was officially warned by gardai of an active threat against his life and spent most of the seven months after his release in England only to arrive back in Ireland in December, 2019, as the Drogheda feud was about to explode and make international headlines with the murder of Keane Mulready Woods.