Criminal with Kinahan link quizzed on Donohoe trial witness intimidation
Four criminals arrested in follow up to cell searches at Mountjoy
A CRIMINAL linked to the Kinahan cartel was one of four men being quizzed last night over a campaign of intimidation during the Adrian Donohoe murder trial.
Glen Holland (36), from Dublin’s north inner city, who is aligned to the international crime gang, was arrested in Mountjoy Prison yesterday. He and three others were all being questioned at different Dublin garda stations.
Holland is serving a six and-a-half year sentence after pleading guilty to possessing two loaded handguns as well as almost €70,000 worth of cocaine in September 2010.
Also arrested in the same jail was Dean Byrne (25), a violent north Dublin criminal with more than 120 convictions, who is currently serving a lengthy sentence for aggravated burglary.
The Irish Independent previously revealed details of searches in their cells in July and August, when detectives from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI) were backed up by the jail’s Operational Support Group (OSG).
An illegal mobile phone, a charger and notebooks were seized in a search of Holland’s cell in August.
Aaron Brady (29) will be sentenced to the mandatory term of 40 years in jail for capital murder next week. He was convicted after a lengthy trial which was blighted with witness intimidation.
Gardaí had launched a detailed probe into the intimidation before the trial concluded.
A GANGSTER linked to the Kinahan cartel was one of four criminals being questioned last night over a campaign of intimidation during the Adrian Donohoe murder trial.
Glen Holland (36), from Dublin’s north inner city, who is aligned to the international crime gang, was arrested in Mountjoy Prison yesterday.
He and three others were all being questioned at different Dublin garda stations.
Also arrested in the same jail was Dean Byrne (25), a violent north Dublin criminal with over 120 convictions who is currently serving a lengthy sentence for aggravated burglary.
The Irish Independent previously revealed details of searches in their cells in July and August when detectives from the National Bureau of
Criminal Investigation (NBCI) were backed up by the jail’s Operational Support Group (OSG) in Mountjoy prison.
An illegal mobile phone, a charger and notebooks were seized in a jail search of Holland’s cell in late August.
Holland is serving a six and-a-half year sentence after pleading guilty to possessing two loaded handguns as well as almost €70,000 worth of cocaine in September 2010.
He was previously arrested by detectives investigating the murder of Eamon ‘The Don’ Dunne in April of that year and spent over six years on the run in the UK and Spain before being arrested in Spain in August 2017, on foot of a European Arrest Warrant.
“Key evidence was seized and this may prove to be very useful in the ongoing witness intimidation investigation,” a senior source said at the time of the search of Holland’s cell.
Also arrested yesterday was a very close associate of Coolock criminal Jamie Tighe (24), who was shot dead as part of a criminal feud in October 2017.
Tighe’s younger associate, who is now aged 28, was previously jailed for four years for firearms offences.
He was already serving a jail
term for violent disorder and he was on bail for this crime when he was arrested.
Aaron Brady (29) will be sentenced to the mandatory term of 40 years in jail for capital murder at the Central Criminal Court next week.
He was convicted after a lengthy trial which was blighted with witness intimidation.
Even before the trial ended, the NBCI had begun a detailed probe into the intimidation.
Five witnesses did not give evidence in the trial during which there were repeated claims that witnesses were suffering interference and intimidation.
Following the conviction, it emerged that a video of one witness giving a statement about Aaron Brady to gardaí was circulated on social media, with text calling him a “rat” and accusing him of “touting” on his friends.
In mid-July, Detectives searched the Mountjoy cell of Byrne.
While no mobile phone was found, a piece of paper with several phone numbers scrawled on it was seized.
Gardaí are investigating if the intimidation of certain witnesses was “outsourced”.