for sale | 

CAB cashes in on gangster Dean Russell’s 300k Dublin home

The sale comes after the 54-year-old lost a marathon 11-year battle with Criminal Assets Bureau for ownership of the property at Riverside Park in Clonshaugh

Today at 10:41

THE home of veteran gangster Dean Russell is to go under the hammer at a knock-down price of €300,000 in a ‘cash-buyer’s only’ auction next month.

The sale comes after the 54-year-old lost a marathon 11-year battle with Criminal Assets Bureau for ownership of the property at Riverside Park in Clonshaugh.

Russell – who was described in the High Court as having “a prolonged and deep history” with criminality – handed over the keys last October after being threatened with jail if he didn’t vacate.

He was forced to surrender ownership of the three-bedroom home, purchased for €53,000 in 1995, after the High Court found he had access to “very significant amounts of funds… quite in excess of any funds generated by legitimate activities he was involved in.”

Pictures taken from inside the property at 125 Rivervalley Clonshaugh show an extension to the rear while the attic has been converted and two of the bedroom come with fitted wardrobes.

Despite the additions, the home failed to sell by private treaty when advertised in May at a price of €345,000.

This is despite a similar property in the same estate selling for €431,000 in January of last year.

A description of the property posted by Ray Cooke auctioneers describes it as “a magnificent three-bedroom semi-detached home with an attic conversion ideally situated in a very popular and mature estate in Dublin 17.”

The auction is scheduled to take place at 1 pm on October 12th.

Russell has long been outspoken in his denials of involvement in serious criminality.

In 2018, he rang Liveline to complain after gardai arrived at his home to execute a bench warrant for speeding.

He told Joe Duffy he hadn’t “been in trouble in years.

“I have previous convictions, all in the past when I was young and foolish,” he said.

“I’m nearly 50 now, I haven’t been in trouble in years. Google me away. At the end of the day, I think I’m a good person.

“I’m chairman of the local football club. I do a lot for the area. I have a good community.”

However, during his 11 year battle with CAB, the Bureau alleged that the convicted robber had been the target of two assassination attempts and had been linked to gang feuds in Coolock and north inner-city Dublin.

When the case was first entered in 2011, a senior CAB officer told the High Court that Russell had 12 previous convictions, including one relating to a post office robbery in 1991.

The original case also included an apartment in Santry, Dublin and another in Malaga, Spain.

Russell lost an appeal in 2020 to overturn the original €400,000 CAB judgement against him and was then refused permission to bring his case to the Supreme Court.

During the case, CAB claimed Russell associated with known criminals and was involved in gangland feuds in Coolock and the north inner city.

After assessing all his finances CAB said 61pc of some €356,000 lodged to his various accounts came from unknown sources.

Cash payments were made to his credit card, including IR£13,500 in 1998 and €10,000 in 2009, from an unidentified source.

No credible evidence was provided in relation to the window cleaning, taxi or furniture businesses he claimed to have run.

Russell had claimed he paid the mortgage on his home in Clonshaugh, north Dublin, from the proceeds of his own labour.

He denied he was a “major criminal” and said he worked all his life, including cleaning windows, selling furniture and running a taxi business.

The judge ruling in favour of CAB said Russell had access to “very significant amounts of funds… quite in excess of any funds generated by legitimate activities he was involved in”.

Russell’s life was saved by armed gardaí in May 2015, when major criminals Paul Zambra and Anthony ‘The Giant’ Callaghan were caught on their way to kill him.

Armed detectives stopped a BMW driven by Zambra on Dublin’s northside while Callaghan was arrested nearby on Clonshaugh Road.

Speaking with the Sunday World after the arrests, Dean Russell said, in spite of the Garda intelligence that led to the arrests, that he did not believe he was the target.

“If they wanted to kill me, there are easier ways to do it,” he said.

“This is nothing to do with me.”

He accepted, however, that gardai had called to his home and checked under his car following the arrests.

Russell also told us on that occasion that he had turned his back on crime and saw no reason why he would be a target.

“I don’t have dealings with criminals. I have a close set of friends, I don’t have any enemies,” he said.

“I’m not involved in feuding, I don’t owe any money, I don’t know Zambra. I don’t even know what they look like.

“I’m adamant it was nothing to do with me. unless it’s something I don’t know about and I normally have a good idea.”

Gardai also foiled a hit on Russell in 2009 in which criminals from the north inner city were involved.

Russell said that his involvement in that dispute “disgusted” him.

“I just want to be left alone,” he said.

Russell’s brother Anthony was shot dead in an Artane pub in 2008.

Prior to his murder, Anthony was a close associate of paedophile north inner-city gang boss Christy Griffin.