EXCLUSIVE | 

Kinahan cartel top dog back on the streets after six years for plotting murder

We snap masked Cartel ‘fixer’ Liam Brannigan as he walks out of jail

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A Kinahan cartel criminal formerly regarded as the gang’s No.3 operative on the ground in Dublin is back on the streets after serving just six years in prison for plotting murder.

Our exclusive images show the moment Liam Brannigan, a cousin of cartel heavyweights ‘Fat Freddie’ Thompson and Liam Byrne, walked free from maximum security Portlaoise Prison on Friday morning.

In a futile attempt to disguise himself from our surveillance team, UCD educated Brannigan stepped out from the prison’s loading bay at 10.43am wearing a black face mask and beanie hat.

But, after dumping his bags into the boot of a waiting Nissan Qashqai driven by a female associate, he discarded the face coverings — allowing our photographer to capture images of his face as the vehicle exited through the main prison gates.

It’s understood gardai in the south inner city are aware of Brannigan’s release and will assess the security situation depending on whether he returns to his old patch or joins up with other senior cartel figures abroad.

Brannigan (40) — who we previously pictured in discussions with Daniel Kinahan — was jailed for eight years in April 2020 after he was convicted of conspiring to murder a criminal linked to the Hutch side in the feud.

But because he has been in custody since his arrest shortly after the botched hit on Dubliner Gary Hanley, his sentence expired on Friday.

In 2020, the Special Criminal Court found Brannigan, of Bride Street, Dublin, guilty of being at the “centre of the wheel” of the Kinahan cartel plot to gun down Hanley.

Mr Justice Paul Coffey said the evidence against Brannigan derived from four areas, including covert audio recordings from several cars bugged by gardai.

Armed officers intercepted a Volkswagen caddy van just 500 yards from Mr Hanley’s home on the night of November 6, 2017, when two men, Joseph Kelly and Luke Wilson, were found with a loaded semi-automatic pistol.

The evidence also included phone data extracted from the co-conspirators’ phones and the “interconnectivity” of these phones; sightings of the men by gardai; and a montage of CCTV footage showing their movements.

Luke Wilson (24), from Cremona Road in Ballyfermot, Dublin, and Joseph Kelly (35) of Kilworth Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, were stopped by armed gardai just after 8pm on November 6, 2017, after their bugged Volkswagen caddy was intercepted on Philipsburgh Avenue.

Mr Justice Coffey, reading his judgment, said almost immediately after the men were stopped they could be heard on an audio recording saying: “It’s the old bill, we’re set up, we’re set up.”

The court heard that during that arrest gardai seized a 9mm Beretta semi-automatic pistol, a silencer, 15 rounds of 9mm ammunition, several phones, a rucksack and a container of petrol.

Moments before their arrest, Kelly and Wilson had collected the rucksack containing the gun, silencer and ammunition from a cyclist whom they met in a Lidl car park in Glasnevin, the court heard.

Before that meeting, Kelly had taken directions about where to collect the weapon during calls with a phone referred to as PB3.

The user of the PB3 phone was referred to as “Mr PB3” by the prosecution.

Mr Justice Coffey said, at one point, Kelly relayed a conversation he had with ‘Mr PB3’ to Luke Wilson, telling Wilson there was a “set of apartments” nearby and “he’s going to get yer man to walk down”.

This conversation, the court heard, was moments before they collected the gun from the cyclist.

It also heard that ‘Mr PB3’ [Brannigan] had shared numerous calls with phones attributed to Luke Wilson, Joseph Kelly and Alan Wilson on the night of November 6, 2017, and that Mr PB3 sought numerous “progress reports” from the men at a “critical phase of the conspiracy”.

Mr Justice Coffey said there was “no doubt” that ‘Mr PB3’ “had an agreement” with the other men to murder Gary Hanley.

He said it’s clear Mr PB3 had a “central role” in the management and operation of the kill plot.

The court had also watched CCTV footage of Brannigan’s arrest at Hanover Court, Dublin on November 6, 2017, less than 20 minutes after the arrest of Luke Wilson and Joseph Kelly.

It heard the CCTV footage showed Brannigan throwing “an illuminated item” into the air seconds before his arrest.

Mr Justice Coffey said it was “overwhelmingly probable” that the object Brannigan threw was the PB3 phone and that he discarded it “because he was the person who used it” to speak with his co-conspirators in the Volkswagen caddy that night. He said it was an “attempt to discard incriminating evidence before he was apprehended by gardai”.

Seán Gillane SC, for the State, told the court the PB3 phone put Brannigan at the “centre of the wheel” of the kill plot.

In an appeal for clemency, Brannigan’s lawyer Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, for Brannigan, told the court Brannigan had completed a one-year access programme course to get into University College Dublin and completed two-thirds of his studies in archaeology and history.

Mr O Lideadha indicated that this showed Brannigan “has potential” for his future.

But jailing the murder conspirator for eight years, Mr Justice Paul Coffey said the organisation of the planned execution meant the defendant was culpable to a very high degree.

The judge said the conspiracy was at all times carried out with “a staunch and unyielding determination” to carry out a “gangland-style execution type of murder”.

He described the plot as elaborate and lengthy, and noted that Brannigan had been “intimately involved” in all aspects of its planning and organisation.

And the judge highlighted that Brannigan took part in 10 phone calls with the “hit team” on the evening of the planned murder.

Brannigan was the fifth member of the Hanley hit team to be jailed after the major investigation run by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau under Special Crime Operations.

His close associate Alan Wilson was jailed for six years, while Luke Wilson received an 11-year sentence. Joseph Kelly also received a six-year sentence for the role in the plot to kill Hanley while Brannigan’s close pal Dean Howe was also sentenced to six years for his role in the plot.

Hanley was targeted by the Kinahan cartel for murder due to his close association with the Hutch family.

He had survived a previous attempt on his life when he and Patsy Hutch, the brother of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, were shot at after being lured to a “meeting” in Ballymun.

Hanley had served several jail sentences over the years and was one of the ringleaders of a riot on St Stephen’s Day in St Patrick’s Institution in 2005.

Brannigan is the second senior Kinahan cartel associate to have regained his freedom within the past 12 months, following the release of Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan from Mountjoy on a money laundering rap last December.

Despite being heavily involved with the cartel, prior to his conviction for conspiracy to murder, Brannigan’s record was relatively clean.

He had never received a custodial sentence while his road traffic convictions — which were outlined to the court — related to him not displaying his car insurance or his licence.