Judge Tony Hunt, summed up the Kinahan Cartel very well: they use Foolish Morons, as Foot Soldiers, to do their “Murders”. Many are doing “big time” at present, others are doing Life, while Daniel and close Cohorts enjoy the foreign Sun and Sand, but for how long?

>three men who took part in a Kinahan cartel plot to kill a member of the Hutch family in Dublin’s north inner city.

Michael Burns, 43, was jailed for nine years whilst Stephen Curtis, 32, and Ciaran O’Driscoll, 25, were both sentenced to five years each in prison for their role in the plot to murder Patrick “Patsy” Hutch.

Sentencing the defendants today, presiding judge Mr Justice Hunt said the court was satisfied that the three men were working for the Kinahan organised crime gang, which is involved in money laundering and drug trafficking. He said the gang operated in cells or subcells based on a hierarchical structure and was prepared to use violence up to and including murder to achieve its aims.

The judge emphasised the “cynicism” of the Kinahan criminal organisation, where “vulnerable, desperate and foolish” individuals took risks for surprisingly modest returns and could be described as “dispensable foot soldiers”.

Passing sentence on Burns today, Mr Justice Hunt said he had acted as a “conduit” and was a supervisor of the sub-cell who organised logistics, including phones, guns and cars and he got his directions from the “higher echelons” of the Kinahan crime organisation.

Burns had received his instructions from Suspect Number 1 through an encrypted phone and the evidence was unequivocal in that he had assisted in the preparation of the very grave crime of murder, he said.

His role was to supervise and ensure the smooth running or planning of the plot, although he was not the author of these instructions, which were passed on from another man known as Suspect Number 1, said the judge. He also passed on instructions developed by others at a higher level and was not at the top of the hierarchy, he said.

There was no doubt that Burns’ assistance was of considerable help to the “insidious and destructive” nature of the Kinahan criminal organisation, he said. Burns’ conduct in the facilitation was intentional as opposed to reckless and he had supervised those below him on the back of instructions from above in a deliberate and calculating manner, continued the judge.

The judge said the headline sentence was 13 years imprisonment and the weightiest mitigation factor was his guilty plea which deserved a straight 25% discount.

Burns did not gain financially or in any material way from this event and was of no fixed abode at the time, said the judge. He had not acquired a significant criminal record until his mid-30s and his physical and mental issues had already been documented to the court. The judge sentenced him to nine years and nine months in prison with the final nine months suspended.

Passing sentence on Curtis, Mr Justice Hunt said the court accepted that he belonged in a different category to Burns and although his assistance was limited it was nonetheless valuable at the last stage in the plot.

Curtis was involved in sub-cell meetings and in buying phones and SIM cards to be used by the “hit-team”. He was recorded expressing reservations about Suspect Number 1, the man in charge of the attempted murder, and said he wanted to get out of the gang.

Mr Justice Hunt said that Curtis did not stand to gain from his involvement in the plan and the €500 owed to him for his role was “as good an illustration as any in regards to the risk and reward” involved.

He was the type of person who would be “preyed” upon by the criminal organisation and this crime represented “a massive step up” from his previous convictions, he said. He was sentenced to six years in prison with the final year suspended.

Sentencing O’Driscoll, Mr Justice Hunt said he had agreed to perform the limited but vital function of “looker”, who would watch Mr Hutch’s house and signal the hit-team when he emerged so they could shoot him. He was at the lowest level of the subcell and was unlikely to have been picked were it not for the “happenstance” that his grandmother also lived on Champions Avenue, he said. He was useful to the Kinahan cartel as his presence on the road would not have been out of place in the ordinary way, he explained.

Furthermore, O’Driscoll did not stand to gain in any significant way and naively took enormous risks for the organisation by using his own phone which assisted in his identification. He was told that the organisation would clear his drug debt, which showed the cynicism of the organisation, said the judge. O’Driscoll was exactly the kind of vulnerable person who was preyed on by the Kinahan organisation in return for negligible rewards, he noted. The court previously heard that Curtis previously told a probation officer that “drugs took me into it” and he would have done anything for his “next fix”. He was sentenced to six years in prison with the final year suspended.

During last month’s sentence hearing for the three men, evidence was given that gardai recovered a written record of the financial expenditure of the Kinahan gang sub-cell from a suspect’s address. This breakdown of the expenses and payments of the operation to murder Mr Hutch – the older brother of the leader of the rival Hutch organised crime group – detailed a “starting balance” of €7,000 and recorded how “logistical costs” came to in excess of €10,000.

Michael Burns, of no fixed abode, Ciaran O’Driscoll of Avondale House, Cumberland Street, Dublin 1 and Stephen Curtis of Bellman’s Walk, Seville Place, Dublin 1 have admitted to having knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation and participating in activities intended to facilitate the commission of a serious offence by that criminal organisation, or any of its members, namely the murder of Mr Hutch within the State between February 1 and March 10, 2018, both dates inclusive.

Burns had pleaded guilty to passing instructions to one or more members of a criminal organisation and of acting as a conduit for communications by providing phones. He has also admitted transporting one or more members of a criminal organisation, moving one or more vehicles for subsequent use by one or more members of a criminal organisation and planning or assisting in planning the intended shooting of Mr Hutch.

O’Driscoll had pleaded guilty to agreeing to act as a look-out and to helping plan the intended shooting.

Curtis had admitted providing, or assisting in providing, one or more mobile phones for use by the criminal organisation and purchasing or assisting in the purchase of one or more mobile phones, sim cards and credit top-ups. The activities also include passing on the phone number of the “looker” (or look-out) – O’Driscoll – to a member of the criminal organisation and planning or assisting in planning the intended shooting of Mr Hutch.

The non-jury court was previously told that large sums of money were made available to murder people and those involved in the Kinahan cartel were paid €20,000 for “setting people up for a hit”. It also heard that audio surveillance of a conversation between a woman and one of the suspects involved in a plot to murder Mr Hutch picked up references to “they have so much money, they could buy half the Hutch lads” and “they’re getting €20,000 and all for setting somebody up, used to get that for doing the hit”.

In a related sentence hearing last month, Mr Justice Hunt said the court accepted garda evidence that the Kinahan organised crime gang is involved in “execution-type murders” to protect its core activities, which include organised drugs and firearms offences on “an international scale”.