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Drug dealer who was Brian Rattigan target after starting relationship with mobster’s ex jailed

Rattigan tried to have his ex-girlfriend’s new partner shot by ordering hit from prison cell

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A FORMER target of infamous mob boss Brian Rattigan has been jailed after being caught red-handed collecting drug debts in Cork city.

Paul Geraghty, who once had a ‘hit’ put on him by Rattigan after starting a relationship with his ex-girlfriend Natasha McEnroe, was given a two-year sentence this week.

The convicted drug dealer was caught in the city with €3,315 after travelling from Dublin to collect money from various people.

Both Geraghty and McEnroe have been the target of garda investigations in the past and she had been previously named in court as being involved in Rattigan’s drug operations.

But the couple fell foul of ‘King Ratt’ when he ordered a hit on the pair while he was serving time in Portlaoise Prison.

Rattigan had been incarcerated for seven years when McEnroe went to Portlaoise Prison in 2010 to break it off with him — and the furious gang boss tried to attack her.

A hitman tried to kill Geraghty in January 2011. He narrowly escaped being shot by climbing out of a window at his home in Rathmines, south Dublin.

Gardai kept Geraghty and McEnroe’s home under 24-hour watch amid fears they would be targeted by an enraged Rattigan from his prison cell.

The protection was lifted when McEnroe made her peace with her ex, although Geraghty went to live in Cork for a time.

This week, it emerged that Geraghty has since become heavily involved in heroin dealing in Cork city, as first reported in The Examiner.

Following his arrest in 2021, texts were found on his phone which strongly suggested he was supplying drugs to people and collecting debts in Cork.

A garda detective gave evidence in which he described the 36-year-old Dubliner as “a convicted drug-dealer heavily involved in dealing heroin in Cork”.

Geraghty was arrested as he was about to board a bus for Dublin in October 2021, carrying a Penneys shopping bag.

He was found to have €2,000 in his pockets and was then handcuffed and taken to a garda station where a search revealed more cash in the shopping bag.

Using CCTV footage, officers then tracked Geraghty’s movements around Cork which showed him meeting another convicted drug dealer at a DIY store.

The footage also showed him collecting cash from drug users.

Geraghty claimed he was getting €500 a week to collect the cash, while in court it was heard he also had addiction issues.

He had pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge and was given a three year prison sentence with the final 12 months being suspended.

Geraghty previously pleaded guilty after a garda raid on the home he shared with McEnroe in 2012 uncovered €2,000 worth of heroin.

The Sunday World previously reported how the couple were the targets of a major garda investigation in 2015.

In 2011, they had been questioned by gardai about the shooting of Declan O’Reilly, who had been a close friend of the couple. They were never charged with any offence related to the probe.

Brian Rattigan, spent 17 years in prison after being convicted of the murder of Declan Gavin in 2001, which sparked the infamous Crumlin/Drimnagh feud.

His murder conviction was later quashed and Rattigan pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but in the meantime had been convicted of a €1 million heroin deal from behind bars.

During that trial it heard how he sent various instructions by text to people, including to McEnroe.

When Rattigan suspected that the heroin had been found by gardai, he sent a text message to McEnroe that read: “Get rid of ur phones, quick.”

Detectives later searched McEnroe’s home where they found notebooks that gardai considered to be drugs ‘tick lists’ and were similar to notebooks found in Rattigan’s prison cell.

Just five months after the Crumlin bust and the raid on Rattigan’s cell, officers stopped a car being driven by McEnroe.

It was searched by gardai, who found €50,000 in cash.

Rattigan was released in August 2021, two years after his murder conviction had been overturned, and he left for Spain.

He was recently reported to have been stopped and briefly questioned by gardai at Dublin Airport after returning here earlier this month.

Sporting a black eye, Rattigan told officers he was back in Ireland “for business.”