Eugene Patrick 'Dutchy' Holland was named in court as the man who fired the bullets that killed crime journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996.
The 68-year-old career criminal was considered an enforcer for the drug baron John Gilligan who, along with Holland, was acquitted of Ms Guerin's murder in 2001.
Holland later served nine years in Portlaoise maximum security prison for drug dealing and was released in 2006.
Interviewed shortly after his release the Dubliner denied involvement in the shooting of Ms Guerin. "I haven't killed anybody ever. There is no blood on my hands," he said.
In 1981 he was jailed for seven years for an armed robbery at the Berkeley Court hotel in Ballsbridge. Less than a decade later he was sentenced to 10 years for possessing explosives, detonators and fuse wire.
He threatened legal action over newspaper claims about his alleged role in the Guerin murder and said he wanted to leave Ireland but only after he cleared his name.
However he maintained his links with criminals. During a Garda search last month he was found in a house in Finglas owned by one of the biggest drug dealers in the country.
Having moved to Lewisham in London, he now faces the prospect of dying in prison. He will be sentenced in May along with Khan Coombs (24) of no fixed address, Simon Young (38) of Central Avenue, Welling, Kent, Gerard Booth (47) of Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor, Co Down, and John McDonnell (45) of Russett Way, Lewisham.
Today's verdicts followed a two-month trial featuring lengthy surveillance evidence as Holland met alleged paymaster, Patrick Van Cantfort, a wealthy European businessman nicknamed "The Banker" and currently being sought by police.
The court heard Van Cantfort ordered the kidnapping apparently believing Mr Zahid had double-crossed him.
Holland - who described himself as a "legal adviser" - was watched by police as Van Cantfort gave him cash for hotel rooms and vehicles needed for the conspiracy.
Christopher Kerr, prosecuting, said as the plan unfolded gang members "staked out" Mr Zahid's home in Isleworth, west London and the nearby Chiswick premises of his import and export company Tradex Ltd.
Mr Kerr told the court that while Holland was "in charge" of the "plan in the UK", McDonnell and Booth - convicted drug traffickers who met in prison - were to "carry out the snatch physically".
Young was effectively a go-between.
The court heard at one point during the police surveillance operation Coombs - the honey in the trap - was seen climbing into a car and being told by McDonnell he was going to forge an impressive CV for her.
He was taped telling her: "On Wednesday morning we're going to send you into the office and you're going to try and flirt with this bastard to see if he'll ask you out - which he will, that's the type of dog he is.
"If he comes out we're going to grab him," he added.
Coombs was then heard planning to wear a "nice" £500 designer Cerutti jacket before choosing a false name for herself.
McDonnell replied: "If this comes off there's £10 million involved in this job. When you bring him out we can take him to the slaughterhouse."
The court heard the would-be kidnappers were arrested in a series of co-ordinated armed swoops: Young as he drove through London's Shepherds Bush with a revolver in his waistband, Coombs and Booth in another car on the Chelsea Embankment, McDonnell in his hotel room, and Holland while in a Lewisham travel agents booking a flight to Rome.
Holland never gave evidence, relying instead on a one-sentence interview denial of any wrongdoing, and then his barrister's subsequent insistence his client was only in the UK for a High Court libel hearing.
Booth also refused to give evidence. The others did.
McDonnell admitted he was a "rogue", "a career criminal", and a convicted drug trafficker who was really planning to steal a lorry load of high value electrical goods.
He added there had been no kidnap conspiracy, a crime that would have been "out of my league" anyway.
Young, who maintained kidnap was the last thing on anybody's mind, told the jury he was simply taking the gun found on him to "somebody up north".
Coombs agreed a CV had been prepared, but told the court it was for legitimate job-hunting. Asked about McDonnell's taped "kidnapping conversations", she said it was simply a drink and drug abuser talking "rubbish".