Hitman would ‘take out his target with one shot’
AN ESTONIAN hitman who was put under surveillance after he flew into Ireland told his associates in a text message he would take out his target with “one shot to the head”, the non-jury Special Criminal Court has heard.
Former wrestler Imre Arakas, a former Estonian separatist who had been “scarred deeply” by imprisonment in Russia, bought a wig in Dublin city and used an encrypted Blackberry phone to receive information about the movements and location of James Gately in Northern Ireland.
Arakas (60), with an address in Sopruse, Tallinn, Estonia admitted earlier this month to conspiring with others not before the court to murder Mr Gately in Northern Ireland between April 3-4 last year.
Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, told the court the maximum sentence for such an offence is 10 years in prison.
Arakas sat in the dock facing the court during the sentence hearing as Detective Inspector David Gallagher, from the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, summarised the facts of the case. Det Insp Gallagher told Mr Greene gardaí began an intelligence-led investigation after they received confidential information that Mr Gately was to be targeted by a number of people who were involved in organised crime.
The witness said surveillance was carried out on a number of these people who were suspected of involvement in this operation. This information was “added to” when gardaí learned Arakas was travelling on a plane from Alicante to Dublin.
Det Insp Gallagher agreed with counsel that gardaí were interested in Arakas from information received from Europol. 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, 2017 and he was observed travelling to the north inner city and was seen buying a wig and a mirror from a discount shop on Moore Street, and was using a Blackberry phone.
He spent the night at an address in west Dublin and was arrested at there by gardaí the following day.
His Blackberry was found to contain a number of text conversations involving four people. The messages on this phone were deleted remotely following his arrest, but one garda took photographs of the messages before their deletion.
It is believed gang boss Daniel Kinahan was one of the four people who messaged Arakas, from his home in Dubai.
Details on the location of Mr Gately contained in the messages matched his location in Northern Ireland, the court heard.
Arakas was remanded in custody until December 12.