KING RATT’S €2K CELL PHONE SEIZED
Evil gangster furious after prison staff remove mobile ‘used to run empire’
GANGLAND killer Brian “King Ratt” Rattigan’s prison drug empire is in tatters after a hi-tech phone was seized from his cell. The evil thug erupted with rage after staff found the €2,000 specially-encoded device during a swoop at the maximumsecurity Portlaoise jail.
Detectives believe it contains all the 39-year-old criminal’s contacts and details of his drug dealing on the outside.
A source said: “Rattigan is furious. Gardai got prison staff to hit his cell. It is a huge blow to him.”
The gardai believed he was running his empire from inside SOURCE YESTERDAY
CALLOUS killer Brian “King Ratt” Rattigan has suffered a massive blow after gardai seized a hi-tech mobile phone from his prison cell.
The specialist gangland-encoded €2,000 device is believed to contain all the 39-year-old’s criminal contacts and even details of the sale and supply of drugs on the outside.
An intelligence-led search was launched in Portlaoise Prison late last year.
A source explained: “The gardai believed he was running his empire from inside and was fundraising for his release which he thought would be in November of this year.
“Information was received and they hit his cell where they found the phone.
“Such is the of the encryption it has been sent abroad to a lab so it can be hacked into. “That phone has a treasure trove of information on it. “He was livid, he started giving out. He is disgusted but it tells you about the arrogance of the man. “Phones are massive commodities for prisoners but this wasn’t being used by anyone else. This was his way to communicate with his gang.” It is not the first time Rattigan has hit trouble over phones after he was the first drug dealer to be convicted of selling from behind bars. He had been dealing heroin. Last month, just a week before he was sentenced to nine years in prison for the manslaughter of Declan Gavin, a €500,000 drug seizure in a Dublin suburb was linked to him. Gardai from Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau had been monitoring his activities and moved in on the gang.
Sources said they are continuing to monitor the brutal thug who is suspected of threatening to kill gardai during his Crumlin/drimnagh feud.
The feud, sparked by Gavin’s killing, launched a campaign of terror that led to the loss of 16 lives over a 17-year period.
Gavin was stabbed to death outside an Abrakebabra outlet on Crumlin Road in South Dublin on August 25, 2001.
Rattigan went on trial for his murder and was convicted in 2009, but he successfully appealed last year. He then pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Last month at the Central Criminal Court Mr Justice Michael White sentenced King Ratt to nine years backlevel dated to when he made his guilty plea on October 1 last year. He had been due for release in November but will now be behind bars until 2025.
The court heard that on the night of the incident Gavin was socialising with pals outside the takeaway.
A Nissan Micra pulled up and Rattigan emerged from the car armed with a knife, plunging the blade into the victim’s body and throughhis heart.
Gavin ran into the Abrakebabra chased by Rattigan but the drug dealer could not follow because a bouncer locked the door.
King Ratt was screaming that the 20-year-old was a “rat” with reports the attack was over a drug deal gone wrong.
Gavin died from his injuries and Rattigan was arrested and charged, standing trial twice.