Discovery proves how dissidents are extorting money from criminals.
GARDAI discovered a signed confession from a drug dealer outlining how he paid ‘protection money’ to the RIRA when they raided Nathan Kinsella’s home, the Sunday World can reveal.
The confession – which was handwritten by a north Dublin drug dealer – included details of cash paid to five separate RIRA members.
The evidence was due to be aired in court last week, where Kinsella was facing charges of IRA membership, and would have caused the supposed anti-drug dissident group significant embarrassment.
However, he changed his plea to guilty at the last minute in the Special Criminal Court, and evidence was not heard. He was jailed for two years on Thursday.
The document outlined in detail the role played by five senior dissident leaders – including Kinsella – in extorting cash from criminal gangs.
It also detailed the amounts of cash handed over – as well as dates and locations when the drug dealer and some of his pals met with RIRA chiefs.
A source told the Sunday World that Kinsella’s carelessness in holding on to the document lead to his expulsion from the RIRA.
“It had the potential to destroy the so-called Republican movement’s reputation as anti-drugs. If he hadn’t pleaded guilty, it all would have been made public in court,” said a source.
Kinsella was a senior figure in the RIRA in Dublin, and was a close personal friend of slain dissident boss Alan Ryan.
Last week the Sunday World revealed how he had been ostracised by his fellow terrorists in prison, where officers fear for his safety.
He was placed in isolation in Portlaoise Prison after being shunned by both his comrades on the RIRA landing and other criminals whose associates he extorted money from.
Gardai believe Kinsella was playing “both sides of the field” while Ryan was alive and had regular contact with criminal gangs in north Dublin.
Kinsella was arrested after a Garda investigation into paramilitary activity at the funeral of Alan Ryan, who was gunned down on a street near his home in Donaghmede on the city’s northside in September 2012.
Intent on making a martyr of the extortionist and murderer, the Real IRA planned and carried out a chilling show of force against the authority of the State and arranged a colour party and a volley of shots over his home.
Kinsella was closely linked with dissident hardman ‘Fat Deccy’ Smith, who died after he was shot outside a crèche in Donaghmede three weeks ago.
