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Brother of missing crime boss Sean Dunne named in court as key link to Sligo gangs

Two gangs from Sligo, headed up by previous CAB target Patrick Irwin, and Barry Young, recently convicted at the Special Criminal Court, are linked to the network.

Sat 27 May 2023 at 18:26

THE brother of missing drug baron Sean Dunne has been named in court as a key link between international drug gangs and dealers in the west of Ireland.

Philip Dunne, whose brother Sean is thought to have been murdered in Spain in 2004, has been named in a Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) case against a Sligo drug dealer.

Evidence from the CAB also reveals how gardai believe so-called rival gangs were working for the same criminal network that stands apart from the Kinahan cartel.

Based in Meath and Dublin, Sean Dunne’s criminal network has remained intact despite his presumed murder, and is considered one of the largest in the country.

Two gangs from Sligo, headed up by previous CAB target Patrick Irwin, and Barry Young, recently convicted at the Special Criminal Court, are linked to the network.

CAB evidence in a case against drug dealer Ian McMorrow and his girlfriend Claudia Gethins details how the gangs were inter-connected.

Ian’s brother Kenny McMorrow is married to Patrick Irwin’s sister Catherine, who lived in Co Meath, and where they held their wedding in 2018 which according to CAB was attended by a number of “high profile” criminals from Sligo.

While Irwin was serving a seven-year sentence for cocaine possession, Ian McMorrow, who had been his right-hand man, set up his own organised crime gang.

He worked closely with a first cousin of Barry Young, who is considered a major criminal with links across Ireland and has been named in court as having held meetings with people involved in the gangland murder of Robbie Lawlor in Belfast in 2020.

According to garda evidence in the CAB case, Kenny McMorrow is “associated with a number of high-profile criminals from Dublin and Meath.”

These include Duleek-based Philip Dunne, and gardai believe Kenny provides the contacts for his brother’s drugs operation in Sligo.

Philip Dunne survived an assassination attempt when a gunman shot him in a Co Meath pub in March 2006.

He was questioned by gardai under anti-gangland laws in 2011 as part of an investigation into a €4 million drugs seizure. He was never charged in connection with the drugs haul.

There were persistent rumours that Sean Dunne had faked his death to side-step his enemies and by 2013 it was thought he might turn up for Philip’s wedding.

The nuptials at a Dublin hotel went ahead without his brother after a ceremony in Dunleer, Co Meath.

Originally from Donaghmede, Dublin, Sean Dunne went missing in Alicante in 2004 and is believed to have been murdered.

He was a well-known figure in Ireland’s underworld at the time after rising through the criminal ranks from armed robber to international drug trafficker at the time of his disappearance.

At the time, he had become a target for CAB who was looking for €4 million in unpaid taxes from him and had identified 13 properties owned by him.

While in Spain he based himself on the Costa Blanca and at one stage is believed to have 30 tons of drugs warehoused in Spain.

Dunne also made money from VAT fraud in the construction industry in which tax was claimed back for work that was never done.

In 2003 a suspected paramilitary gunman shot Dunne a number of times outside his Co Meath home, but he survived despite being hit in the chest.

In the recent court hearing against Ian McMorrow, the Sligoman was described as being “actively involved in the sale and supply of drugs” in the region.

Judge Alex Owens said McMorrow and Gethins are people of “no means” who live in a house they don’t own and don’t have the resources to account for the car, jewellery or cash.

The judge said the explanation is in the affidavits that McMorrow is a drug-dealer “working with other shady characters.”

He didn’t challenge a CAB bid to have his car and cash declared the proceeds of crime, along with two diamonds rings, which Ms Gethins said she had inherited.

The CAB case also detailed other criminals who had been associated by McMorrow, including Thomas O’Boyle, who got a six-year sentence in 2019 after being caught in a vehicle with €280,000 worth of cocaine in February 2018.