‘scourge’ | 

Sligo mobster Barry Young sentenced to 11 years in prison

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said that Barry Young (38) could have faced 16 years or more had he not pleaded guilty to the charge of directing a criminal organisation.

Today at 13:46

A Sligo criminal who was a “scourge” on his community for years with his drugs operation has been jailed for eleven years by a judge at the Special Criminal Court.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said that Barry Young (38) could have faced 16 years or more had he not pleaded guilty to the charge of directing a criminal organisation.

The judge noted that Young has said he wants to turn his life around but, Mr Justice Hunt said he had to punish Young to act as a deterrent to others and to mark the gravity of the social consequences of organised criminal activity.

Mr Justice Hunt said that Young’s gang is “smaller in scope, size and geography” than others that have come before the courts in recent years and, he said, “the violence used did not reach the same level as those other organisations”.

There are more serious gangs, the judge said, and Young’s gang was itself answerable to more serious gangs. But Mr Justice Hunt said he did not want to “understate the destructiveness” of Young’s activities on the people of Sligo.

He described Young as a “scourge on the people of Sligo for a number of years” and he noted evidence that a relatively small community in the west of Ireland is “burdened by four such gangs”.

Mr Justice Hunt set the headline sentence at 16 years but due to mitigating factors, including Young’s early guilty plea, he reduced that to 12 years.

He suspended the final 12 months for four years after his release on the condition that Young keep the peace and be of good behaviour for that period.

Mr Justice Hunt said the purpose of the suspension is to acknowledge that he is young enough to emerge back into the community and he wants to incentivise Young’s promises that he would “turn his life in a different direction”.

Father-of-two Young, with a previous address at Geldof Drive, Cranmore, Co Sligo, pleaded guilty at the non-jury court that he, between October 4, 2019 and January 15, 2022, both dates inclusive, directed the activities of a criminal organisation both within and outside the State, contrary to Section 71 A of the Criminal Justice Act, 2006, as inserted by Section 5 of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act, 2009.

Following the sentence, Chief Supt Aidan Glacken told the media outside court that “Barry Young has been involved in the sale and distribution of controlled drugs for the last 20 years.

“He directed and controlled a very large organised crime gang involved in an illegal business in the northwest of the country and this gang had substantial international links.

“In the pursuit of greed and in the pursuit of money, this organised crime gang has caused much harm, much stress, much destruction to society and families through their reckless nature.

“Many of those families have suffered from violence, threats and intimidation which is unacceptable in today’s society.

“Over the past number of years in Sligo, we have committed very substantial resources to tackle this crime gang and other gangs involved in the drugs business.

“We will continue in this work to dismantle these gangs, including seizing their assets, their cash, whether it be here or abroad.”

At a previous hearing the court heard that drug seizures linked to the gang totalled over €628,000, while Young himself had €40,000 in ready cash despite his only stated income being social welfare payments.

Young also dispatched enforcers that he described as “head-the-balls” and “Dirty Harrys” to collect on drug debts, a sentencing hearing was told.

Young had been arrested by detectives from Sligo at Dublin Airport on January 11 of this year on his way to Spain in a bid to escape his life of crime and drug-debts.

Det Insp Mulderrig told Ms Murphy that gardaí seized Young’s phone and discovered thousands of messages, images, videos and calls relating to Young’s criminal activities in running the Sligo-based gang.

Det Insp Mulderrig said Young had 81 previous convictions at the time of his arrest and had been twice sentenced for drug-dealing, with the last conviction for that offence coming in 2006 when he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.

Ms Murphy said that gardaí examined the phone which was found to contain thousands of “local, national and international” interactions used for directing the criminal gang in relation to the sale and supply of drugs through Young’s “known associates”.

Young’s lawyer told the court his client came from a decent, working class family in Sligo and that Young developed a “significant drug difficulty” that led to his drug-debt issues.

Young had been under “enormous pressure” to pay his debts and had been looking for “a way out of the life he made for himself”, adding that he was preparing to move out of Ireland when arrested.

Det Insp Mulderrig agreed that there had been a legitimate threat to Young’s life due to his debts and that his client’s mental health had suffered as a result.

Young had become depressed and suffered anxiety over his debts and his situation that led him to go to counselling where he admitted he had sought to “end it all”.