Liam Byrne
From IRA Inc. to gangland’s blinging molls, Nicola Tallant exposes the 2017 Underworld Rich List. Here is Part 2.
Paul Rice (€5 to €10m)
KINAHAN cartel enforcer has seen his fortunes go up and down in recent years since he moved back from Spain to operate as a debt collector for the mob.
While it’s believed that he has invested heavily in properties in the Tallaght area, he is likely to lose a massive wad of cash to the Criminal Assets Bureau, who have been carrying out a huge investigation into his wealth.
Rice (below) is notoriously mean with money and attempts to remain under the radar by living between the home of a relative and the ordinary Tallaght property he bought off his murdered pal Gerard ‘Hatchet’ Kavanagh.
Paul Rice
Gerard Hopkins (€10 to €20m)
Hopkins (below) is a lifelong associate and friend of George Mitchell and has collected a huge nest egg as a supplier in Ireland. He lives in Dublin, but is believed to have properties in Turkey.
Like his boss, Hopkins (below) lives a very low-key existence and is regularly seen driving bashed-up cars, but this wily criminal has survived decades in the drug game.
James Duffy (€10 to €20m)
Dundalk farmer James Duffy is believed to be one of Ireland’s biggest cigarette smugglers and has been forced to pay over €300,000 to the Criminal Assets Bureau. The multi-millionaire’s associates are linked to smuggler Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy and were behind a €32 million seizure of fags at Drogheda Port in Co. Louth in 2014.
Gerard Hopkins
Stephen Kearney (€10 to 20m)
Involved in drug dealing since the 1990s, Kearney is part of George ‘the Penguin’ Mitchell’s gang in Ireland.
He is a criminal mastermind who Gardaí believe controls a vast drug empire.
They also believe he has brought massive consignments of cocaine to Ireland.
Kearney has been fighting a €700,000 CAB bill and has links to a major Liverpool gang. It is understood he has invested his money in Ireland and throughout Europe.
The Byrne family (€10 to 20m)
The Byrne family of Raleigh Square are the number one target of the Garda crackdown on organised crime, in effect since the Regency Hotel shooting of David Byrne.
The first family of ‘bling’ caused such controversy in their display of wealth at David’s funeral (left) that they became a priority target of the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Almost €1 million in cars and jewellery has already been seized from the family, while a number of properties linked to them, worth another €1m, have been identified.
The family are believed to have foreign property investments and links to a number of businesses in Dublin, including a beauty salon and a children’s play centre.