Cyril McGuinness

Last updated
Cyril McGuinness
Born1964/1965
Cloughran, Swords, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Died8 November 2019
Fairfield, Derbyshire
NationalityIrish
Criminal chargessmuggling
illegal transport of waste
theft
Criminal penalty7 years imprisonment
extradited back to Belgium
RelativesFrancis McGuinness (brother)

Cyril "Dublin Jimmy" McGuinness (1964/1965 - 8 November 2019) was an Irish convicted criminal with a record for smuggling, illegal transport of waste and theft. [1] He was 54 when he died. [1]

Contents

Early life and family

He was originally from Cloughran in Swords, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. [2] As a teenager he worked in scrap metal and was known to Gardaí by the time he was 20. [2]

He had a brother, Francis, who was estranged from him. [3] [4] His brother is an articulated truck and car dealer. [3] McGuinness' nephew is the politician Conor D. McGuinness, who was not aware he was related until a few years before Cyril McGuinness' death. [5]

Cyril McGuinness reportedly lived for a period in Derrylin, County Fermanagh. [1] [2]

Criminal history

He was banned from driving for 25 years in 1986 and jailed for six months after refusing to stop for Gardaí as they pursued his lorry through north County Dublin in 1984. [2] After his conviction he was led from Balbriggan courthouse while handcuffed to a Garda. [2] He shouted "bastard" at a Garda sergeant who had testified against him and "violently spat" in the sergeants' face. [2]

Although he was described as a Republican, Gardaí believed that his real motivation was money and that he had no political beliefs. [2] He did supply vehicles to the Provisional IRA and was heavily involved with paramilitaries in smuggling laundered fuel, alcohol and cigarettes, however. [2]

In 1986 he was also convicted of perjury after he asked another man to testify that McGuinness was a passenger - not the driver - in a lorry that was pursued by Gardaí in a separate chase. [2] He was given a twelve-month suspended sentence for perjury. [2]

The Gardaí believed that in the 1980s he was seriously involved in handling stolen vehicles as well as smuggling them into Northern Ireland and Britain for resale. [2]

In 1992 he was arrested in Dublin Airport with four forged £20 notes. [2] It took Gardaí three days to discover his real identity because he used up to 12 false identities at the time. [2] Because he was uncooperative with Gardaí and had so many aliases he was remanded in custody for a month before pleading guilty to the charges in court. [2]

At the time of this conviction he had at least three addresses in north County Dublin and one in London, England. [2]

He managed to secure a number of waste disposal contracts from local authorities in his twenties despite having a criminal record. [1] These contracts included those for the disposal of hazardous waste. [2] He used those contracts to engage in fly tipping. [1] Investigations by the Gardaí led to his moving first to County Monaghan, then to County Fermanagh. [2]

In 2004 the BBC Northern Ireland current affairs programme Spotlight exposed him as being involved in the illegal transportation of waste. [1] In 2007, he pleaded guilty to 22 charges related to illegally transporting waste from the Republic of Ireland through Northern Ireland to Scotland and received a suspended sentence. [1]

There were a series of thefts of ATMs in Ireland around 2009 in which he and his gang were suspects. [2]

Twenty trucks and cranes were stolen in Belgium and the Netherlands and brought to Ireland. [6] McGuinness was arrested in a Dublin court when he appeared in relation to charges of theft of an ATM. [6] A European Arrest Warrant was issued for McGuinness in 2008 in which he was described as an active member of an Irish criminal organisation. [6] [2] In April 2008 he was stopped by Serbian police near the Croatian border. [6] He was taken to Belgrade from where he was extradited to Bruges. [6] While there, he was granted bail and left the country, though he was convicted when he was tried in absentia. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and was extradited back to Belgium in 2011 to serve his sentence. [6]

Death

His death occurred after a police raid on his home in Fairfield, near Buxton, Derbyshire in November 2019. [1] [7] He was being investigated about the kidnapping of Kevin Lunney. [1] The cause of death was reported to be a heart attack and the death is being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct. [1] The IOPC have verified that police were executing a warrant at his residence at the time he took ill, though they have said there was no evidence a taser was used. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garda Síochána</span> Police and security service of the Republic of Ireland

The Garda Síochána is the national police and security service of Ireland. It is more commonly referred to as the Gardaí or "the Guards". The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner, who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veronica Guerin</span> Irish crime reporter (1958–1996)

Veronica Guerin Turley was an Irish investigative journalist focusing on organised crime in the Republic of Ireland, who was murdered in a contract killing believed to have been ordered by a South Dublin-based drug cartel. Born in Dublin, she was an athlete in school and later played on the Irish national teams for both Association football and basketball. After studying accountancy she ran a public-relations firm for seven years, before working for Fianna Fáil and as an election agent for Seán Haughey. She became a reporter in 1990, writing for the Sunday Business Post and Sunday Tribune. In 1994 she began writing articles about the Irish criminal underworld for the Sunday Independent. In 1996, after pressing charges for assault against major organised crime figure John Gilligan, Guerin was ambushed and fatally shot in her vehicle while waiting at a traffic light. The shooting caused national outrage in Ireland. Investigation into her death led to a number of arrests and convictions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Special Criminal Court</span> Irish specialist court

The Special Criminal Court is a juryless criminal court in Ireland which tries terrorism and serious organised crime cases.

Capital murder refers to a category of murder in some parts of the US for which the perpetrator is eligible for the death penalty. In its original sense, capital murder was a statutory offence of aggravated murder in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, which was later adopted as a legal provision to define certain forms of aggravated murder in the United States. Some jurisdictions that provide for death as a possible punishment for murder, such as California, do not have a specific statute creating or defining a crime known as capital murder; instead, death is one of the possible sentences for certain kinds of murder. In these cases, "capital murder" is not a phrase used in the legal system but may still be used by others such as the media.

Dessie O'Hare, also known as "The Border Fox", is an Irish republican paramilitary who was once the most wanted man in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garda Emergency Response Unit</span> Unit of the Irish national police

The Emergency Response Unit (ERU) is the police tactical unit of the Garda Síochána, Ireland's national police and security service. The unit was a section of the forces' Special Detective Unit (SDU), under the Crime and Security Branch (CSB) until 2017, when the Special Tactics and Operational Command was created to take over its operational duties alongside Armed Support Units.

John "the Coach" Traynor was a major Irish organized crime figure who was a both a longtime confidential source for Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin and a prime suspect in allegedly arranging her 1996 contract killing.

Patrick Eugene "Dutchy" Holland, was an Irish career criminal involved in armed robbery, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, and money laundering. He was also an alleged hitman well-known as the prime suspect in the 1996 contract killings of Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin. Holland denied committing the crime, however, until his death as a convict in HM Prison Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight in England.

James O'Donovan was the senior forensic scientist to the Garda Technical Bureau of the Garda Síochána, until his retirement in 2002. He was a key witness in the Provisional Irish Republican Army assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and was the target himself of Irish criminal Martin Cahill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flagstaff Hill incident</span> 1976 cross-border incident between Ireland and the United Kingdom

The Flagstaff Hill incident was an international incident between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It took place on the night of 5/6 May 1976 near Cornamucklagh, a townland just inside the Cooley Peninsula in the north of County Louth in the Republic of Ireland, when the Irish Army and Garda Síochána arrested eight British Special Air Service soldiers who had illegally crossed the Irish border.

Gary Sheehan was an Irish Garda Síochána officer who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during a hostage rescue operation in County Leitrim in Ireland in 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Adrian Donohoe</span> Irish police officer murdered during an armed robbery in 2013

Adrian Donohoe was an Irish detective in the Garda Síochána based at Dundalk Garda Station in County Louth, who was fatally shot in Bellurgan on 25 January 2013 during a robbery by an armed gang of five people on a credit union. He was the first garda officer to be murdered in the line of duty since 1996, and was afforded a full state funeral.

The Limerick feud is a feud between rival criminal gangs in Limerick City, Ireland. The feud started between two criminals in the year 2000 and then spread to involve several criminal families, mainly the Keane-Collopy gang from St. Mary's Park and the McCarthy-Dundon gang from Ballinacurra Weston. While control of the drug trade is a factor in the feud, according to Garda Superintendent Gerry Mahon, the primary driving force is "absolute hatred by each side for the other". Up to twenty murders and hundreds of shootings, stabbings, and pipe bomb attacks have been attributed to the feud since it began.

The Hutch–Kinahan feud is a major ongoing feud between two criminal organisations in Ireland that has resulted in the deaths of eighteen people, the majority of which have been perpetrated by the Kinahan family. The Hutch gang, led by Gerry Hutch, and the Kinahan Family, led by Daniel Kinahan, are the main participants.

David "Daithí" Douglas, an Irish zookeeper turned criminal, was shot dead on 1 July 2016. He had convictions dating from the 1980s as well as more recent ones and had survived a shooting the previous November. His murder is part of the Hutch–Kinahan feud. In August 2018 'Fat' Freddy Thompson was found guilty of the murder by the Special Criminal Court.

Frederick "Fat Freddie" Thompson is an Irish criminal connected to the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud who was also convicted of the murder of David Douglas.

On 17 September 2019, Kevin Lunney, chief operating officer of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), was abducted from his home near Derrylin in the south of County Fermanagh, beaten, and left near Drumcoghill in County Cavan.

The Drogheda feud is a series of allegedly connected crimes in Drogheda, Ireland. Four people have been killed as a result of the feud. The feud began in 2017 when a drug trafficking focused organized crime gang split into two divisions, with one faction led by Richie Carberry along with two brothers aged in their 20s from the Moneymore estate on the north side of town, and the other headed by Irish Travellers Owen Maguire and Cornelius Price.

John Cunningham is an Irish criminal with convictions for illicit drug smuggling and kidnapping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinahan Organised Crime Group</span> Irish criminal organisation

The Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG), also known as the Kinahan Cartel, is a major Irish transnational organised crime syndicate alleged to be the most powerful in Ireland and one of the largest organised crime groups in the world. It is also established in the UK, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates. It was founded by Christy Kinahan in the 1990s. His eldest son Daniel manages the day-to-day operations of the family's criminal group. Estimated reports have credited them with wealth of up to €1 billion.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Kevin Lunney abduction: Suspect Cyril McGuinness dies". BBC News. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Lally, Conor; Carswell, Simon (9 November 2019). "Who was 'Dublin Jimmy'? Chief suspect in Lunney kidnapping a storied villain". The Irish Times . Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  3. 1 2 Phelan, Shane (13 March 2017). "Nine years on, man gets BMW back from gardaí". Irish Independent . Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  4. ↑ Lally, Conor (13 November 2019). "Brother of Dublin Jimmy wanted Garda to share intelligence with him". The Irish Times . Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  5. ↑ Hanley, Valerie (5 May 2024). "Nephew of notorious criminal and kidnap mastermind 'Dublin Jimmy' set to run for election". Extra.ie.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Fermanagh crane thief extradited to Belgium". BBC News. 11 August 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  7. 1 2 Reynolds, Paul (14 November 2019). "'No evidence' taser used on Cyril McGuinness, UK police say". RTE News . Retrieved 16 November 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.