EXCLUSIVE | 

Suspected Limerick gangster offers massive €50k reward for return of designer watch

‘No bullshit lads genuinely €50k reward for anyone that can point me to the person who has this watch’

Today at 17:30

A suspected drug dealer linked to gang boss Christy Keane is offering a massive €50,000 reward to find a designer watch he claims has been stolen from him.

The Limerick man posted on social media that the watch had been taken along with “something else” – and warned there was a 24-hour deadline to return the missing items.

Earlier this week he wrote: “24 hours to return the watch or I’m putting a €50k reward on it and trust me I’ll have a lot of information on it then.”

There is a subtle warning that the thieves could face consequences if the watch isn’t quickly returned, as he adds “so drop back the watch and what was taken and it be left at that.

“This watch was taking belong to me [sic] with something else.

“Now I’ll have cameras in the next couple of hours so I’d advice ye to put it back where it was.”

He urged his social media followers to “share it away lads, big reward offered, the watch is no good to anyone as it’s one of a kind.”

He added: “No one else has one, so message me and give it back and that be the end of it.”

In a later post after the deadline passed, he wrote: “Keep sharing it lads massive reward and no one will know if any information is passed on.”

The suspected drug dealer’s post was widely shared through a network of fellow sulky racing enthusiasts.

The man is regularly involved in the illegal road races that take place all over the country and in the UK.

One sympathetic online pal replied: “I’d say if they told anyone they were after getting the watch or showing it to anyone they’re thinking twice about it now.”

The €50,000 reward means they’re “definitely getting told on,” he added.

“If they took it and didn’t know the crack, you couldn’t blame them, we’d all do it. If they give it back you’d leave it at that but if they don’t and they try keep it or sell it then that’s a completely different story.”

Convicted drug dealer Christy Keane is regarded as one of Ireland’s most notorious criminal figures.

He has previously survived a number of assassination attempts from rival mobsters in the McCarthy-Dundon mob.

In June, a well-known criminal admitted facilitating Keane’s attempted murder by helping to make a car available to the gang.

Noel Price (44) pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court to his part in the attempted murder plot by helping to get a vehicle for the gang between June 27 and June 29, 2015.

Price, of Kileely Road, Kileely, Limerick City, appeared before the non-jury court where he replied “guilty” when the single charge on the indictment was put to him by the registrar.

Keane was shot a number of times as he parked his car on the grounds of the University of Limerick, where he went for an early-morning gym session in June 2015.

He survived the shooting after making his escape via a nearby running track and was subsequently hospitalised in a critical condition.

Last May, a nephew of Christy Keane, Richard Treacy, was also charged at the Special Criminal Court with money laundering over renovation work carried out at his home.

Richard Treacy (34), from Garryowen, in Co. Limerick, is charged that over the course of a seven-year period, between 2014 and 2021, he allowed the proceeds of crime to be used for work on his Downey Street home.