Gangland thug named as major suspect in crimes dating back TWO decades as ‘freelance criminal’ joined Kinahan forces. Gangland thug Jason O’Connor is a suspect in crimes dating back over two decades, The Irish Sun can reveal. Todays Irish Sun Paper.

The execution — which claimed the life of Paul Cunningham in 2004 — is one of a number of crimes he was investigated for by detectives to establish if he had any involvement in them.

Senior sources say that volatile O’Connor — nicknamed ‘Pigeon’ because of his love for the bird  — mainly operated as a freelance criminal, and the Kinahan cartel eventually took up his services.

But it was a personal feud which eventually brought him down, as he was last week sentenced to 11 years behind bars for conspiracy to murder a man and for facilitating a criminal organisation.

One source told us: “O’Connor is ruthless and a deadly criminal. He was always looking for work for money and he is suspected of carrying out many jobs for cash.REVENGE PLOT

In a revenge plot on December 5, 2016, O’Connor targeted Charlie Cooper in west Dublin. The victim was shot several times but managed to survive the hit.

As the probe continued into that hit over the following months, the Kinahan cartel recruited O’Connor.

But he was arrested and charged  in 2023  using evidence gained from an encrypted phone seized from his house by Gardai.