Senior Kinahan cartel member Peter Keating, who pleaded guilty to directing the activities of the crime group in its failed attempt to murder Hutch gang member James ‘Mago’ Gately, has been jailed for 11 years.
At the Special Criminal Court on Thursday Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the 40-year-old was a “senior” and “trusted” member of the organised crime group.
Keating, of Rowlagh Green, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, pleaded guilty in July to directing the activities of a criminal organisation between December 7th, 2016 and April 6th, 2017, within and outside the State.
The judge said this involved the “ongoing targeting” of Mr Gately in the context of a feud between the Hutch and Kinahan crime groups.
Mr Justice Hunt said an Estonian man, Imre Arakas, was brought to Ireland in 2017 to carry out the murder of Mr Gately but was apprehended by gardaí.
When Arakas’ phone was examined, gardaí discovered messages and photographs relating to the targeting and killing of Mr Gately and informed the PSNI in Belfast, where Mr Gately then lived, of the threat to his life. The cartel’s plan to murder him was “crystallised” for gardaí when Arakas was arrested, said Mr Justice Hunt.
‘Senior figure’
The judge said that Keating was a “senior figure” in the Kinahan group, which he described as being a “well-organised, complex, sinister and dangerous organisation”.
Mr Justice Hunt sentenced Keating to 12 years’ imprisonment, suspending the final year for two years. Keating entered into a bond of €100 to keep the peace for two years.
At a previous hearing, Det Sgt David Carolan said that following the Regency Hotel attack in which Kinahan gang member David Byrne was shot dead, Mr Gately was “one of a number of members of the Hutch organisation who were targeted by the rival gang known as the Kinahan crime organisation”.
The detective said Arakas was brought to Ireland on April 3rd, 2017, to target Mr Gately. Over the previous days Keating was involved in an operation to locate Mr Gately’s Belfast home and track his movements using tracking devices planted on his car and on cars belonging to members of his family.
Arakas (62) was jailed for six years in December 2018, having pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to murder Mr Gately in Northern Ireland between April 3rd and 4th, 2017. He was arrested before the attack could be carried out. Mr Gately was later at the centre of another attempted murder in May 2017.
Caolan Smyth (30) of Cuileann Court, Donore, Co Meath, was sentenced to 20 years last February over the second attempt. Mr Gately, the court heard, wore a bullet proof vest and survived the attack despite being shot five times.
Directions from others
Det Sgt Carolan said Keating has 10 previous convictions, mostly for road traffic matters. His most recent conviction was in 2009 in Benidorm, Spain for a “tumultuous brawl” for which he was fined €900. The detective agreed with Hugh Hartnett SC, for Keating, that the accused was taking directions from others.
Hugh Hartnett SC, for Keating, had asked the judges to consider that his client is “effectively crippled from the knee down on the left side” from an accident dating back to when he was a teenager. He has ongoing, permanent difficulty including bone disease and an “unsightly wound”, counsel said.
He is, counsel said, a family man who has been involved for many years in organising for a community football team. He had also entered an early guilty plea, saving the court from a potentially lengthy and expensive trial.
Mr Hartnett said that while Keating pleaded guilty to directing a criminal organisation, it was accepted he was receiving directions from others.
Mr Justice Hunt said: “He is directing those on the ground but he is subject to directions.”