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Pay up...or else!
RIRA threaten son of 'the Smuggler' in bitter feud

EXTORTION ROW: The Smuggler

EXTORTION ROW: The Smuggler
THE REAL IRA and a veteran crime lord known as 'the Smuggler' have gone to war after the criminal's son was threatened with murder in a bitter extortion row.

The Smuggler, who controls the country's illegal cigarette racket, was forced to return to Ireland from his Spanish bolthole this week after a six-man RIRA active service unit demanded €200,000 from his eldest son. The terror group demanded that the cash be paid within the next two weeks or the Smuggler's son will end up with a "bullet in the head".

The Smuggler is a former IRA member who has acted as a mentor to some of the country's most feared hitmen, including killer brothers Keith and Eric 'Lucky' Wilson. He previously took on the slain RIRA boss Alan Ryan and organised the Players Lounge pub to be peppered with bullets while Ryan was drinking inside.

This led to three murders, but a peace deal was signed between the two men after the Smuggler paid a substantial one-off "six-figure payment" to the Real IRA and allowed one of his lieutenants to be kneecapped in retaliation for the pub shooting.

CARNAGE: The Smuggler organised the shooting in The Players Lounge pub

CARNAGE: The Smuggler organised the shooting in The Players Lounge pub
Despite the agreement, the new leadership of the Real IRA has returned to the Smuggler and told him that his deal with Ryan died when the 31-year old was shot dead last September. The Real IRA recently made similar demands to drugs baron Troy Jordan, despite the fact he had also given Ryan a one-off payment. The Sunday World recently revealed how Jordan was so worried about the dissident murder threat that he has fled the country permanently.

However, the Smuggler, who is in his late 50s and lives in the Costa del Sol, has chosen to go the opposite route and is back in Dublin to round up muscle. He has vowed that they will not get another penny from him and that he is prepared to take them on with force.
Loyal

Gardai are aware of the worrying developments and the Special Branch has stepped up its surveillance of key RIRA suspects in a bid to prevent a hit attempt on the Smuggler, his son, or anyone loyal to them. Gardai in Ballyfermot, west Dublin, are paying the Smugglers' family home constant attention and are also monitoring his criminal associates for signs they are planning pre-emptive attacks on the dissidents.

NOTORIOUS: RIRA boss Colin Duffy

NOTORIOUS: RIRA boss Colin Duffy
Despite the fact that nearly a dozen Real IRA members have been caught in two recent Garda operations and put behind bars, there are still several dozen members capable of targeting the Smuggler. They are being led by the Derry command of RIRA, with the notorious Colin Duffy calling the shots. Duffy has made moves to clean out the Ryan gang and organised for two Ryan lieutenants, 'Fat' Deccy Smyth and Nathan Kinsella, to be shot and expelled from RIRA.

The Sunday World first lifted the lid on the activities of the Smuggler and how he had purchased several business so it would appear that he was legitimate. However, Gardai launched a probe into his affairs and the Criminal Assets Bureau hit him with a substantial bill, but this was later overturned on appeal.

The Smuggler has amassed millions of euro from the highly organised racket he controls smuggling cigarettes from Spain into Ireland. Evidence of just how big his organisation is came last October when a container carrying over €3m worth of illegal cigarettes was seized at Dublin Port. His sellers are so violent that customs officers in Dublin city centre searching for his illegal smokes have to wear stabproof vests to protect them from attacks.

The Smuggler controls operations from a luxury villa in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, while his eldest son is in day-today charge of the business from the capital. His son is one of the main targets of Ballyfermot detectives and has been linked to several death threats issued to rivals in west Dublin.

HITMAN: Keith Wilson

HITMAN: Keith Wilson
The Smuggler has been importing cigarettes for nearly two decades and has also invested in several Dublin pubs. He was once a key member of the Concerned Parents Against Drugs movement in the early 1980s and was a member of the IRA and had links to Sinn Fein. He took three psycho brothers from Ballyfermot - Eric, John and Keith Wilson - under his wing, getting them to carry out several murders on his behalf. After carrying out shootings, the men would relax in his Spanish villa.

He was making so much money that he came on Alan Ryan's radar in 2010. Ryan demanded protection money, but the Smuggler refused to pay and there were several violent tit-for-tat incidents. It culminated in the Players Lounge pub in Fairview, Dublin, being shot up in July 2010, leaving three innocent men with gunshot wounds. The Smuggler ordered John Wilson to carry out the shooting, which was seen as an attempted murder on Alan Ryan.
Slaying

The following month, one of the Smuggler's associates, Colm 'Collie' Owens, was shot dead in retaliation by RIRA in Finglas, on the city's northside. Real IRA member Daniel Gaynor was then murdered by Keith Wilson in revenge for Owens's slaying. Keith Wilson was later jailed for life for this murder, while his brother Eric was also jailed after executing Englishman Daniel Smith in Spain.

The Smuggler was then left weakened and is understood to have paid more than €150,000 to the Real IRA and gave the go-ahead for John Wilson to be kneecapped as punishment for the Players Lounge shooting. The Smuggler then decided that with Keith and Eric Wilson locked up for life for murder, he would tie up the loose ends.

In September 2012 John Wilson (35), was brutally executed by 'the Smuggler's' new associates. The Smuggler thought that he had made his peace with the RIRA, but following the threats to his son, gardai fear that there will be a bloody escalation of the feud.