‘Mago’ is linked to 3 gang hits
CAB alleges target of Kinahan cartel was a prominent member of Hutch gang in its court assets battle against him & partner
TOP-TIER target for the Kinahan cartel James “Mago” Gately has been described in court as a “prominent member of the Hutch organised crime gang who is linked to three murders”.
The evidence was given in a sworn affidavit by Michael Gubbins, chief officer of the Criminal Assets Bureau, in the High Court in relation to CAB’S battle against Gately and his partner Charlene Lam over their family home in Coolock, Dublin, a VW Golf and a ladies Rolex watch.
The affidavit, opened in the High Court yesterday, alleges Gately is “a leading and prominent member of the Hutch crime gang involved in armed robberies and the importation of controlled drugs”.
Officer Gubbins linked Gately to the murders of Aidan Byrne in 2010, Eamon ‘The Don’ Dunne and David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in 2016.
However, defence counsel argued Gately has never been charged for any of the three murders.
“He didn’t set foot near a court. If the DPP had evidence suspecting him of the murders he would have been charged,” defence counsel argued. Gately, who has survived a number of attempts on his life and was shot on two occasions, claimed an attempt on his life by Estonian hitman Imre Arakas “came about because people assumed he had a criminal connection,” defence counsel said.
He added that there is “a misplaced assumption he is involved in organised crime”.
The first plot to kill Gately took place in April 2017 and centred on Arakas, who was brought to Ireland to murder Gately.
The second was in May 2017 when Kinahan-linked gunman Caolan Smyth shot Gately five times at a petrol station in Dublin but failed to kill him. Aidan Byrne, 31, was shot ten times in the chest and abdomen as he sat in a car at Drumalee Avenue in Dublin on February 20, 2010.
Jonathan ‘Yuka’ Douglas, from Dublin’s north inner city, was convicted in July 2012 of Byrne’s murder.
Eamonn ‘The Don’ Dunne was murdered on April 23, 2010, as he attended a friend’s birthday party at a pub in Dublin’s Cabra when a hit team of four men arrived in a car.
Two masked men entered the pub and shot Dunne several times in the head and body before escaping in a car.
To date no one has been convicted of his murder. David Byrne, 33, was shot dead at a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in February 2016 as part of the Hutch-kinahan feud.
Last year, Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch was found not guilty of the murder.
CAB seized the home of Gately and his partner Lam under Section 3 orders.
It said they spent €440,000 on an extension and extensive renovations; a VW Golf TSI and a ladies’ Rolex watch worth €4,400, which CAB claims are all derived from proceeds of crime.
It is CAB’S case that Ms Lam is of “limited means” as a beautician and “takes her legitimate income into the mortgage account of James Gately”.
The court also heard Gately claimed he “was valeting cars for food” while he was in Belfast for five years.
“I earned enough to keep me ticking over,” he told a member of CAB.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens said a written decision will be given “in due course”.