EXCLUSIVE | 

Brother of gang boss avoids jail after cocaine, heroin, cannabis and cash found at home

Three-year suspended sentence for sibling who had stash hidden in duvet

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The brother of a notorious gang boss has escaped prison after being caught with drugs worth over €8,000 and nearly €6,000 in cash.

Lee Young, whose brother Barry was jailed at the Special Criminal Court this year, had previously pleaded guilty after the money and drugs were found at his home.

While Lee got a suspended sentence after sticking to his bail conditions, his younger brother Barry got 11 years last July.

Lee Young (41) was described in Sligo Circuit Court as being a drug addict who had no assets of his own and occasionally sold drugs to fund his own habit.

The garda said in court he was at a low level in the drugs trade and that was very remorseful and motivated to sort out his drugs addiction.

He had begun drinking as a teenager and a stint in prison had exposed him to heroin which had been addicted to for several years.

His defence counsel Eugene Deering said Young did not have the trappings of wealth that one would normally associate with the supply of drugs.

He did not have a car and lived in his aunt’s house and had no assets, according to a Garda witness.

While the cash and drugs were found at the house, there were no other items such as tick-lists or weighing scales to suggest Young was dealing drugs.

It was also heard how Young had been on a detox programme, with a Garda witness saying in court it was the best he had seen Young looking.

Members of his family, including his parents, had come to court to support him.

Young previously admitted two counts of possession of drugs for the purposes of sale or supply at Garavogue Villas, Sligo, on January 31, 2019.

Gardaí found 751g of cannabis resin worth €4,506, 47.62g of cocaine worth €3,334 and €548 of heroin at his home.

Cash with a total value of €5,745 was found in a duvet and Young immediately admitted responsibility for the drugs but denied selling.

During the case, Young’s counsel pointed out how he had done everything asked of him, completed 200 hours of community service and produced clear urine samples.

Judge Keenan Johnson imposed a three-year term, suspended for five years with a number of conditions.

The seized cash was divided between Social Ground Force, Sligo Cancer Support Centre, SVP and Sligo Tidy Towns.

Judge Johnson said that drugs were a vicious circle and were a scourge on the community.

The gang of Lee’s younger brother, Barry, was also described as “a significant scourge” in the Special Criminal Court last July.

Barry Young manipulated other people into moving drugs and cash and then called in dangerous criminals to terrify anyone who defied him.

It was referred to in court how Barry Young used ‘household names’ to enforce debts but that he preferred to sort things out through negotiations.

It was heard Barry Young had been looking for a way out of the drugs trade and was servicing his debt after getting in too deep, but he was using the same tactics to force others to carry out his dirty work.

Barry Young’s criminal gang had been targeted by a Garda operation since 2019, which ended in his arrest in January 2022 at Dublin Airport as he was about to take a flight to Spain.

The operation identified 20 gang members some of whom have already being through the courts and led to €500,000 worth of drugs and €110,000 in seized cash.

His attempts to move cash through a Madrid bank account were uncovered and raids were carried out at properties in Alicante involving officers from the Criminal Assets Bureau targeting his operation.

While in prison, Barry Young became aligned to group which in turn allowed him to grow from a local drugs gang to one with national and international connections.

His time in prison effectively allowed him to make more contacts to expand his business and take over business from the Irwin gang in Sligo.

By the time of his arrest, however, it is believed his debts to the Dublin-based criminal Mr Big, meant he was completely at the mercy of that gang boss.