A DUBLIN man arrested in Northern Ireland this week with false passports and €60,000 in cash is in protective custody in jail over fears the Real IRA plan to whack him.
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Jonathan Gill is on a Real IRA death list after the dissidents declared war on north Dublin gangsters in the wake of the murder of its former leader Alan Ryan.
The 31-year-old was charged with a money laundering offence in Dungannon Magistrates Court on Wednesday and is due to appear
there again next week.
Authorities in Northern Ireland fear the well-spoken man could be attacked by revenge-thirsty dissidents and have placed him in isolation for his own protection. Gill is the subject of a massive garda investigation because of his suspected involvement in money laundering on behalf of a criminal gang based in Coolock.
The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is in the final stages of a massive investigation into Gill and are likely to hit him with a demand for a five-figure sum for undeclared income.
Infiltrate
He is also being investigated by gardai with a view to bringing charges before the special criminal court under antigangland legislation, which would see him go on trial without a jury.
Despite being suspected of being a serious player in the Coolock gang's schemes, Gill has had no serious charges brought against him and only has a handful of convictions for road traffic offences.
Gardai have identified at least 12 hard core members of the gang and say it is extremely tight-knit and disciplined and is almost impossible to infiltrate. Sources say that Jonathan Gill, or 'Giller' as he is known, is a "very clever operator". He is from the Malahide
Road in Dublin and comes from a very respectable family.
He no longer lives at the family home and spends his time moving between various addresses in Skerries, Rush and Swords. He is said to be "extremely conscious of surveillance" by gardai and is hard to keep tabs on.
Gill attended school in leafy Clontarf and teachers regarded him as being very smart.
He is involved in a long-term relationship with a woman from Clontarf and is said to be a devoted boyfriend and very good to his friends, although he is said to bear grudges and is "highly strung".
BLOODBATH: Cops try to resuscitate Alan Ryan
BLOODBATH: Cops try to resuscitate Alan Ryan
Gill first came to garda attention when, in his mid teens because of his association with serious criminals and has been on the gardai's radar ever since.
The gang Gill is involved with is just one of a number that have been targeted by the Real IRA in a bid to get revenge for Alan Ryan's murder last September.
The Real IRA kingpin was shot dead close to his home in Donaghmede on the orders of a criminal from north Dublin who is nicknamed 'Mr Big'.
'Mr Big's' gang has been linked to at least seven murders, including the savage petrol station slayings in March 2010 of two innocent cousins who were shot in a case of mistaken identity.
The gang is suspected of controlling the drugs trade in north Dublin and of being behind at least half-a-dozen tiger kidnappings, including one in the northeast last year where several young children were held hostage.
Over the past seven years 'Mr Big's' gang has become the main drug-dealing outfit in Darndale, Coolock and Raheny, on Dublin's northside.
His main rival in the drugs trade was Micka 'the Panda' Kelly, who was shot dead two years ago by Alan Ryan, clearing the way for the mob to take over.
Gardai have linked the gang to several unsolved murders. They suspect the gang was responsible for the kidnap and suspected murder of Patrick Lawlor, who disappeared in Donaghmede in December 2004. It is thought he was shot dead over a drugs debt, but his body has never been found.
Detectives have also linked the gang to the slaying of 22-year-old James Purdue, who was shot dead in Donaghmede in June 2006. Purdue was a low-level drug dealer and was also a close pal of Patrick Lawlor.
Two brothers from Coolock, nicknamed the 'Taliban', act as assassins for 'Mr Big's' gang. They were responsible for the double murder of innocent cousins Mark Noonan and Glen Murphy in Finglas in March 2010.
Two associates of the gang led by 'the Panda' were the actual targets, but Noonan and Murphy were tragically murdered instead.
The 'Taliban' brothers have also been blamed for the double murder of Anthony Burnett and Joseph Redmond in March 2012, after the pair were found shot dead in a car in Dundalk, Co. Louth.
Hatred
DOUBLE HIT: Anthony Burnett and Joseph Redmond were shot dead
DOUBLE HIT: Anthony Burnett and Joseph Redmond were shot dead
'Mr Big' is known to have a serious hatred of gardai and regularly abuses members of the force. He has also been investigated for a number of incidents involving violence, including one attack on a man from Coolock who was left with serious stab injuries to the back.
However, many people are afraid to make complaints against him because they are so fearful about the reputation of the gang.
The mob is conscious of not displaying wealth and they travel around in a fleet of battered cars so as not to attract attention from gardai.
For years, 'Mr Big' and his fellow gang members existed in peace with Alan Ryan and his Real IRA cohorts, with both mobs prepared to turn a blind eye to each other's activities.
However, around Christmas 2011 there was an incident in a well-known night spot in Swords, Co. Dublin, when one of Ryan's lieutenants received a serious beating at the hands of three of Mr Big's associates, who were "out of their heads" on cocaine.
This led to serious bad blood between the two gangs. The Real IRA issued death threats against 'Mr Big' and his senior associates and the gang boss left Ireland for Spain last March.
The following month members of 'Mr Big's' gang collected a cache of guns they had hidden in Balgriffin cemetery and drove to Alan
Ryan's house in Donaghmede with the intention of murdering him.
One of the masked men knocked on the door, but when a woman answered they lost their nerve and fled.This alerted Ryan that his life was under threat and all-out war broke out between the rival mobs.
'Mr Big's' mob decided it was a case of 'kill or be killed' and put an operation in place to get rid of Ryan, believing that the key lieutenants who would replace him were weak.
Between leaving Ireland in March and the time of Ryan's murder in September, gardai believe that 'Mr Big' returned to the country on
three occasions, travelling through Belfast Airport.
There is no suggestion that 'Mr Big' pulled the trigger when Ryan was shot dead, but gardai have identified his associates as being responsible, as has the Real IRA.
While in Spain, 'Mr Big' mixed with several notorious drug dealers including Paul 'Burger' Walsh from Donaghmede, who was a long-time associate of 'the Panda'.
Contacts
His gang has extensive contacts among dealers in Spain and sources its drugs supply from there.
'Mr Big' permanently returned to Ireland in November after it became clear that the Real IRA was too busy with internal struggles to avenge their murdered comrade.
On December 4 'Mr Big' and one of his closest associates were arrested on St James's Street in Dublin's south inner city and gardai believed they had foiled an attempted assassination on up-andcoming drug dealer Greg Lynch.
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