A criminal closely involved with a dangerous southside drugs gang was lucky to escape with his life when he was slashed in the neck and the head in a brutal prison attack.
Paul Drew, who is originally from Tallaght, is now recovering from his injuries after the incident on the B2 landing in Mountjoy Prison at around midday on Tuesday.
Drew (31) was rushed to the Mater Hospital after it was initially feared that an artery in his neck had been severed because of the amount of blood loss he suffered in the attack.
However, after receiving detailed medical help he was fit enough to return to the jail and is now in a 'protection regime' in the prison.
It has not yet been established what kind of blade was used to attack Drew but prison bosses have identified several suspects in the case.
Sources say that the attack on Drew may be linked to the illegal narcotics trade in the prison and may have been carried out by the same mob suspected of issuing death threats to gangland figure Paschal Kelly (50) last week.
Kelly was forced to move off the same landing that Drew was attacked on.
Kelly, who was a key member the gang that ordered the murder of Real IRA boss Alan Ryan in September 2012, has since been moved to Wheatfield Prison for his own protection.
Drew - who had been living in Monasterevin, Co Kildare, when he was sent to jail in 2009 - is serving sentences totalling 13 years for heroin trafficking and the separate theft of 1,280 plasma TV's with a value of €250,000.
Before he was locked up, Drew was a major target for the Garda Organised Crime Unit because of his involvement in a Clondalkin and Tallaght-based gang. He is not due for release from prison until 2017.
He was handed a three-year consecutive sentence at Naas Circuit Court for handling stolen property in relation to the massive TV haul.
He was earlier given a ten-year sentence after he was caught with €2m worth of heroin following a garda surveillance operation in Saggart.
The suspicious pallet was intercepted by custom officers in January 2008.
Gardai organised a controlled delivery of the pallet, which had originated in Belgium.
A large cache of weapons and ammunition discovered in a wooded area was believed to have been in the hands to the Provisional IRA after being stolen a number of years ago.
The search was launched in the Scotstown area of Co Monaghan, near the border with Northern Ireland, after a 43-year-old man was arrested last Wednesday and subsequently charged with IRA membership.
Gardai said the arms dump contained AK47s, detonators, detonating cord and components for making improvised explosive devices. Three mortars were also discovered during the operation. The searches are continuing.
A number of weapons were discovered in hides, while some were found buried underground in plastic.
An Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team arrived on scene at 2.45pm last Thursday, where they remained until Monday afternoon.
"All items discovered were made safe and handed over to An Garda Síochána to assist them with their investigation," a spokesman added.
Gardai said the operation involved officers from its anti-terror division, the special detective unit, dog handlers and its armed emergency response unit as well as local officers.
The searches followed the arrest of Jim Smyth, from Aghalissabeagh, Scotstown, a rural area about a mile from the border. He was charged with IRA membership at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Saturday evening.
He was remanded in custody until Wednesday morning, when a bail application is expected to be heard.
Gardaí are satisfied that the haul was not currently in the possession of any particular dissident republican organisation but are concerned the cache was to be used in the run-up to Christmas.
Anti-terrorist officers are now trying to establish the identity of the 'quartermaster' who was in charge of the arsenal during the Provisional war of terror in Northern Ireland.
NOTORIOUS gangster Paschal Kelly was forced to seek protection from prison authorities after a major falling out with the equally notorious Sligo drug dealer Patrick Irwin.
Sources have confirmed to the Sunday World that Kelly went to prison officers on Saturday last after an inmate entered his cell and warned him: “You can either walk off the wing or be carted off it.”
Kelly (50) – who was a key member of the gang that ordered the murder of Real IRA boss Alan Ryan in September 2012 – was then moved to Mountjoy’s C-Base on Saturday afternoon after pleading with jail bosses for protection.
“There had been a power play on the wing between Irwin and Kelly going on for several weeks,” a source told The Star.
“Irwin heard talk that Kelly was planning some kind of move against him and wouldn’t stand for it. Irwin is a genuine hard-man – he’s not the kind that would have sent someone else after Kelly, he’s the kind that would have went up to his cell himself.
“Kelly would have been regarded on the outside and on the inside as one of the biggest players out there.
Read: Notorious gangster placed in protection in Mountjoy Prison.
“But he didn’t feel safe enough to leave his cell for a number of days after word went out that Irwin was after him.”
It's understood authorities are now considering rehousing Kelly in Wheatfield prison.
Both Irwin (pictured below) and Kelly are viewed as two of the biggest orchestrators of the drugs trade within the prison system.
Kelly has been suspected of involvement in the drugs trade in prison ever since he was remanded in custody in October of last year.
That happened after heavily-armed gardaí tracked him to a rural hideout in Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath after years on the run.
Kelly – who has 47 previous convictions – was jailed for four-and-a-half years last March for tax evasion, threats to kill a CAB officer and serious driving offences. Last year, he also had his Co. Cavan home, €14k cash and a 4x4 vehicle seized by CAB.
Sligo drug dealer Patrick Irwin (33), is currently serving a three-year sentence for a horrific attack on a garda, alongside a seven-year sentence for drug-dealing.
In June of 2013, a court heard how Irwin was out on bail for possession of €67,000 worth of cocaine when he savagely attacked a garda, leaving the officer with a broken jaw.
In 2012, the CAB seized Irwin’s home in Dromahair, Co. Leitrim.
The court heard how Irwin’s partner, Avril Boland (pictured above), had a hairdresser’s salary of €300 per week, but had a luxurious lifestyle living in a high-quality house and taking foreign holidays.
Her bank account was in effect used to launder Irwin’s criminal funds, Judge Kevin Feeney said.
Sources confirmed that prison authorities are satisfied the threat to Kelly stems from the falling out with Irwin and that Irwin is backed up by a convicted arsonist from a notorious Dublin crime family who is serving a six-year sentence for arson.
The drugs trafficking situation in Bray is largely controlled by a ruthless gang who are led by a convicted killer.
Senior sources say this mob source their drugs from a number of different supplier including directly from the Christy Kinahan cartel as well as having a "long standing relationship" with associates of gangster 'Fat' Freddie Thompson.
"This gang are a very serious outfit and they were involved in two serious shooting incidents in the town of Bray last year," a source said.
"They are extremely protective of their own turf and they have a structure which involves one main man who has four other lieutenants underneath him and then a number of smaller level dealers.
"The gang are the biggest drug suppliers in north Wicklow and even into parts of south Dublin."
They are involved in everything from heroin to cannabis distribution, and have been active for over a decade.
Sources point out that the key men involved in the gang rarely leave their homes without bullet-proof vests and are extremely paranoid about being shot by rival criminals.
The gang are the chief suspects for the attempted gun murder of career criminal Jonathan Burke, who received serious injuries after being sprayed with shotgun pellets after an attack at a house in the Heatherwood estate in the town in November of last year.
The same gang are suspected of the shooting of Tiernan Stokes, who was shot in the calves in the People's Park, Bray, in August 2014.
A previous member of the gang, Philip 'Philly' O'Toole, was shot dead as part of a different dispute in January 2013.
Another criminal who had close links to the outfit is gangland killer Garrett O'Brien (28) who is serving a life sentence after being convicted of the murder of Shay O'Byrne in Tallaght in March 2009.
Meanwhile, a Wicklow man who is aged in his 40s who has links to the Continuity IRA has also tried to muscle in on the drugs trade.
Sources say that while his power base is more in the south of Co Wicklow, the man still has a growing influence on the drugs trade in the large seaside town.
The "businessman" has a huge property portfolio.
Despite the drugs problem, gardaí have had a number of major successes this year against the traffickers in Bray with some senior figures receiving significant jail sentences.
