Hitman’s violent demise could bring new round of bloodshed
Mark Desmond’s enemies ranged from drug rivals to ‘dissident’ republicans and even members of his own gang, writes Jim Cusack
‘Desmond was questioned over the rape of a 15-year-old boy in prison’
THE least insensitive thing that gardai could say about Mark Desmond’s murder in Lucan on Friday night was that it was “not unexpected”.
Gardai, as well as a large part of the population of west Dublin, despised the brutish murderer who acted as a hitman and enforcer for a major drugs gang based in the Ballyfermot area.
This is one of the most successful but low-key drugs gangs operating in Dublin, with probably a dead body on its hands for each of the 20 years that it has been in existence.
Desmond (41) had a longer career than most Dublin enforcer/assassins and his longevity was put down to his associations with the powerful but little-known gang which provides a large part of the heroin supply to Dublin.
Desmond either fell out with this gang, which would have resulted in his death, or else his murder marks the opening of an assault on a gang whose earnings from heroin and other drugs put it, not quite in the Christy Kinahan league, but certainly on a par with the other big operators in the market. This scenario could open the door to yet another round of deadly feuding in Dublin as Desmond’s associates are heavily armed and dangerous.
The gang whom Desmond worked for has twice had huge hauls of its drugs seized but has continued in business, apparently able to absorb losses that run into millions. These include a seizure of 57 kilos of heroin and 21 kilos of cocaine valued at €7m in September 2006 and another haul of co- caine and heroin worth €11m later the same year.
The gang is known for its murderous response to every perceived threat or loss of earnings.
When it lost nine kilos of heroin and had five pistols seized after gardai arrested gang member Keith Ennis in November 2007, Ennis skipped bail and fled the country, knowing he was being blamed for stupidity in allowing gardai to seize the drugs and guns.
He was stabbed to death and his dismembered body was found in a canal outside Amsterdam in March 2009. Ennis was so sure he would be murdered by his associates for the mistake of being caught that he left arrangements for his funeral.
Over 10 years ago gardai uncovered evidence which indicated the gang had jumped from buying heroin from middlemen suppliers in Holland and had begun making di- rect links with the principal suppliers in Pakistan, the Taliban. Seven members of the gang were in Islamabad and narrowly avoided arrest after their fake passports were seized in a hotel.
Gardai suspect that the gang established a shipping route from Pakistan, landing consignments of heroin along the west coast of Ireland, particularly around Sligo and Clare. A ‘torpedo’-like container washed up on Kilmacreehy beach, in Clare, last month may well have been one of the gang’s shipments that was lost off the coast, possibly after bad weather caused the container to break from the hull of a ship. The two-metre long metal tube contained €4.4m worth of cocaine.
Desmond’s reputation as a merciless murderer stems from the Millennium New Year’s Eve killings of two young drug dealers, Darren Carey (19) and Patrick Murray (20), who were lured to the Grand Canal at Karneystown, Co Kildare, and gunned down.
Desmond established his personal reputation as a killer with the murder of veteran criminal Maurice ‘Bo Bo’ Ward (56) whom he shot dead in April 2002 after Ward foolishly threatened some of Desmond’s young associates.
The gang compounded its overall control of the drugs trade in the west Dublin area with the murders of local rivals led by Paul Corbally (35) and his 22-year-old brother, Kenneth, who were shot dead in Neilstown Road in June 2010.
Gardai believe the Ballyfermot-based gang members are the ‘business end’ of a wider criminal organisation that is headed by a number of families who have been involved in crime for generations.
This gang’s reputation for cruelty was compounded by the murder and secret burial of James Kenny McDonagh, a 28-year-old father-of-one, in October 2010. It was six months before gardai recovered his body in a forest grave in the Wicklow mountains.
Desmond was described by one garda yesterday as a “vile” person and it was pointed out that in 2002 he was questioned but not charged with the rape of a 15-year-old boy. He also served an eight-year sentence for assaulting and threatening to kill a young woman with a firearm.
One of the possible reasons for Desmond’s demise was that he was blamed for the June 2011 murder of prominent ‘dissident’ republican Liam Kenny (53) after Kenny and his Continuity IRA group were accused of stealing €50,000 in drug money from a minor gang associated with Desmond.
This led to the terrorist group attempting to murder one of Desmond’s associates but, instead, shooting dead an innocent man, David Darcy (39), in November 2011.