Cyber scheme: Herman Xennt and Mitchell in Germany
Gerard Hopkins
Crime godfather George ‘the Penguin’ Mitchell keeps a tight net of close associates who he believes has shielded him from the law for decades.
But today we can uncover the lieutenants who have made Mitchell an international success story and one of the top 20 drug dealers in Europe.
In Spain, Holland, Germany, the UK and Ireland, Mitchell has key associates who make sure his drugs empire runs smoothly and that he can wash as much money as he can through legitimate business.
Mitchell has few friends and even fewer associates – but those close to him are fiercely loyal.
At home in Ireland he entrusts his entire operation to one of his oldest friends and a man with whom he once served five years in prison.
Gerard Hopkins and Mitchell cut their teeth together in armed robberies.
In 1986 they were caught stealing a truck-load of cattle drench. They locked the driver into a refrigerated lorry, almost freezing him to death. They each received a five year prison term.
Like Mitchell, Hopkins lives a low-key existence, driving battered-up old cars and opts not to splash his cash, although it is suspected he has become very rich from his partnership with the Penguin.
Hopkins has a complex love life. His first wife left him while he was in prison and when he got out he cast his eye on street trader Rose Herron, with whom he had twins.
However, as their relationship was just beginning to flourish, another woman caught his eye – this time the wife of Rose’s brother.
After she left her husband for Hopkins, Lorraine Hand reverted to her maiden name and the couple now live in the Cabra area of Dublin.
Hopkins, who paid a hefty six-figure sum to the CAB, keeps no properties in his own name, but he travels extensively and is believed to own real estate in Turkey where he spends a lot of time. He meets the Penguin regularly and the pair often hook up in Holland or under the pretence of family holidays in the Canaries or Turkey.
Mitchell’s brother Paddy (pictured below) has for a long time been the mobster’s eyes and ears in Ireland and his partner in crime.
A home-bird, Paddy has never left Dublin for anything more than a few years and has never been able to settle on the Continent. He was jailed for two years for failing to make tax returns worth more than €1million and is believed to now live in south Dublin.
CAB target Stephen Kearney is another life-long friend and comrade of the Penguin, but in recent years cops believe he tried to go it alone and deal with the Colombian cartels himself.
In June 2012 a massive shipment he was suspected of organising was nabbed after Gardaí were tipped off to his activities.
Kearney managed to escape the net when the €29m coke deal went wrong – but his young protégé, Gareth Hopkins, a Trinity graduate and no relation to Gerard, was nabbed.
He was jailed for 15 years but police suspect that Kearney was the mastermind of the plan.
Despite the fact that he was one of Mitchell’s main men in Ireland since the 1990s, it is understood that the pair have had little contact over the past few years. Kearney (pictured below) is currently facing eviction after CAB ordered him out of his home in Ratoath, Co. Meath.
In Holland, Robbie Murphy is Mitchell’s closest confidante and the man who Dutch police say is looking after all his drug interests.
He hasn’t been on the Garda radar for almost 20 years, but surveillance operations have identified him in Amsterdam, where he has a large network of well-known criminal associates.
Murphy is a well-known drug trafficker and convicted armed robber from Artane, Dublin.
He was once known as ‘the Technician’ and became a major target of anti-drugs groups in the ‘90s when he and close pals Derek ‘Maradona’ Dunne and Thomas ‘the Boxer’ Mullen, took over north Dublin’s heroin and cocaine trade.
Murphy fled the country in 1996. He was so trusted by ‘the Penguin’ that during a probe the CAB discovered that Murphy held money in an account for Mitchell in the name of a relative.
Mitchell is believed to meet with Murphy during his regular visits with his daughter Rachel in Holland.
In Spain, Mitchell has tightened his security due to the arrest and jailing of a number of his key associates.
He is now believed to deal exclusively with a Colombian cartel boss who organises shipments of cocaine, heroin and cannabis for him. Mitchell never touches his stocks and sells on the drugs through his well-established network of contacts between Europe, the UK and Ireland.
Just two years ago Thomas ‘the Boxer’ Mullen (pictured above), who has remained in close contact with Mitchell, was arrested in Spain with €2m in cash and a large haul of drugs.
The Sunday World understands he is in prison awaiting trial. The former boxing champ was jailed for 18 years in the UK in 1998, but immediately moved out to the Costa on his release.
It is understood he had re-ignited his relationship with his former supplier Mitchell before he was nabbed with the stash.
The arrest followed a high-profile sting on Alan Buckley (pictured below) in 2012.
Cork’s ‘Mr Big’, whose history with the Penguin dates back to the pair attempting to establish Ireland’s first ecstasy lab, was arrested when a yacht was boarded and €6m worth of cannabis resin was found.
In the UK, Mitchell has one key drug associate based in London. His activities are believed to have been under surveillance for six months.
Mitchell is believed to have fled Spain over the summer after he was tipped off that his entire network was under surveillance.
He relocated to Germany where the Sunday World tracked him down last week. There he meets daily with long-time friend and business associate Herman Xennt.
Xennt has no known links to organised crime, but has a controversial past in the cyber business.
He owns an underground bunker above the village of Traben Trarbach where Mitchell has an apartment.
It is understood the pair want to develop a communications system from the bunker which would be uncompromised by hacking or bugging equipment.