ONE SHOT TO THE HEAD & THAT’S IT
text messages show hitman’s plan to kill
A KINAHAN hitman flew into Ireland to take out a Hutch associate with “one shot to the head”.
The Special Criminal Court heard yesterday Estonian Imre Arakas, 60, was hired for the foiled assassination attempt on James Gately, below.
The contract killer, who admitted conspiring to murder, had a phone which deleted messages once they were read.
One note, retrieved by a quick-thinking garda, said: “It seems possible to take him down when he comes out of car.”
A HITMAN hired by an international crime cartel boasted in coded texts how he would take out his target, a court heard yesterday.
Estonian Imre Arakas, who was under garda surveillance, flew into Ireland to murder James Gately for the Kinahans with “one shot to the head”. He also requested a silencer for the attack.
The intended target has links to Gerry “The Monk” Hutch whose associates have been murdered in a feud by the Kinahan gang.
The court was told
Arakas bought a wig in
Dublin city and used an encrypted Blackberry phone to receive information about the movements of Mr
Gately in the North.
The 60-year-old former wrestler, from
Tallinn, admitted conspiring with others to murder Mr
Gately between April
3 and 4 last year.
Prosecutor Paul
Greene said the maximum sentence for such an offence is 10 years.
Arakas sat in the dock at yesterday’s sentence hearing as Detective Inspector David Gallagher said gardai began an inquiry after they received a tip-off Mr Gately was to be targeted by gangsters.
The witness said surveillance was carried out on a number of people suspected playing a role in the plot.
This information was “added to” when gardai learned Arakas was flying in from Alicante to Dublin.
The defendant also had links to an organised crime gang in Ireland whose members were based in Spain and Dubai.
Arakas was placed under surveillance when he landed in Dublin Airport on April 3 last year and he was followed to the city centre where he walked around O’connell Street.
He was seen going into a shop on Moore Street where he bought a wig as well as a mirror in a discount store.
Over a number of hours he was seen using a Blackberry phone.
He was picked up by a white Mercedes van from Summerhill that evening and brought to Blakestown Cottages in West Dublin where he spent the night.
He was arrested there the following day. The Blackberry was found on the couch beside where a single bed was located as well as a piece of paper with Estonian writing on it, which also had the name “James Gately...in Newry” written in English on it.
Det Insp Gallagher said when the Estonian writing from this note was translated it read: “Eight row, second picture visible”.
The mirror which had been purchased the previous day was found in a bag as well as €835 and £410.
Det Insp Gallagher said the Blackberry was an encrypted device which was password protected.
He added: “It’s on an unique server which is not affiliated to the main phone service.” The court heard the group’s administrator would need encrypted passwords to have formed the group.
It also heard that within minutes of the defendant’s arrest a “quick-thinking” garda, Sean O’neill, realised the material on the phone might become unavailable and photographed the thread of messages. The texts were “almost instantly” and remotely deleted as gardai looked on.
The Central Criminal Court heard the messages had contained conversations between four user names – “Ow new”, “Knife”, “Bon4” and “Bon new”.
Det Insp Gallagher gave a chronological account of the evidence which had been garnered from these messages.
The first message was from Knife on April 4 at 1.12pm to Bon new and read: “The car exits the rear of this building... from a shutter which opens up and down from a buzzer, there’s a ball camera above the entrance. Champagne colour Toyota Avensus. His parking space is as soon as the shutter opens directly in front of you. There’s a gym. He drives most days he seems to go to Newry and back”.
The next message was from Bon new on April 4 at 10.17am to Knife and read: “Ok... where can we see photos of him??”
The next message was from Knife on April 4 at 1.12pm to Bon new and read: “For the picture go into google write ‘James Gately... dublin’ go into images the eight line of pictures it’s the second picture in.
“He has a black suit on and when he clicks on picture it has ‘James Gately wrote under picture it’s a clear picture of him” .[sic] The court heard these three messages had been forwarded from Bon 4 to the defendant’s phone at 11.31am on April 4 and were found on it by gardai.
The next text from Arakas’ device to Ow new at 1.57pm read: “Well I go to internet soon and have a look.
“My plan was actually to go there tomorrow and for a day or two see the situation in real.
“Then perhaps I get a better plan. In case I’m totally alone it seems its possible to take him down when he comes out of car. Its based on Google maps pictures.
“Then there was an open car park
behind the house but if they closed it the situation is another. If not at the car then on his way to the front door.
“There were huge advertisements on the way and looked like it’s possible to hide behind. The whole problem there is that there is nowhere to hide.
“Especially you wait for the moment he comes out of the door. Also silencer would be good. But especially it is good if the dog is really accurate because if the picture in Google is the same that in real life it could be just one shot to the head from the distance and that’s it.
“Also there is a trick that won’t allow him to close the front door behind him and I could follow him to the corridor. But it only works when the door frame is metallic but by the picture it looks plastic but I see there what I can do. Best regards”.
The final message from Bon 4 to Arakas’ device at 12.05pm read: “We have a tracker on his car so my idea is when he goes out in car we know he is coming back we tracks him live when he is heading back to his apt when he is 10 minutes away he get in position and he parks in the same space always so you have him. ”[sic]
Gardai requested the assistance of the PSNI in this investigation and they confirmed Mr Gately was residing at an apartment block and the details given in these text messages matched his location.
The court heard a tracking device was later found under Mr Gately’s car, a Champagne-coloured Toyota Avensis, and it had been placed there on March 30 last year.
CCTV footage showed the occupants of a blue Peugeot van were responsible for planting the device and they had taken the ferry from England to Ireland on March 28, 2017. The court heard Arakas has previous convictions for causing deliberate bodily harm, escaping from jail and unlawful handling of firearms.
Gardai learned that a fairly significant five-figure sum of money was to be paid to Arakas for the attack on Gately.
However, the defendant owed a debt which was considerable larger than the amount he was going to get paid and this would have been set against the figure.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain and Judge Cormac Dunne, remanded the defendant in custody until December 12, when he will be sentenced.
Gardai began an inquiry after getting a tip-off Mr Gately was to be targeted. Surveillance was carried out on a number of people
GARDAI deserve great credit for the operation which led to the conviction of hitman Imre Arakas and almost certainly saved a man from being murdered.
But the case before the Special Criminal Court also highlighted the task faced by gardai in their fight against the Kinahan drugs cartel.
The disclosure the gang hired a foreign contract killer and brought him into the country to commit a murder in the North proves that organised crime knows no borders.
It is imperative the gardai are given all the resources necessary to defeat what can only be described as an evil crime empire.