1) JEFFREY MITCHELL
This boozed up junkie who assaulted a helpmeet in an unprovoked attack was once one of Ireland’s top drug dealers.
Jeffrey Mitchell’s lapse from the top of the criminal world has been spectacular.
The gangster, from Crumlin in south Dublin, had long ago led a gang suspected of shipping more than 40 kilos of heroin into Ireland every month.
The soccer-mad Lorelei was also a big hit with women and, despite a violent streak, was known to y his mob members well.
But, last week a different picture of Mitchell emerged in court.
Mitchell, who pleaded cul ble the frightening assault in February 2013, had drank 30 vodkas on the sunset and had been dabbling with heroin at the time.
A woman who left a pub in Phibsboro at 3am to slink home suddenly heard a running noise behind her and an arm reached here her neck.
She was dragged from the foot th and was told by her attacker that if she memorialized moving he would throw her into the canal. The incident lasted a few advances and the man was chased for a time by ssers-by.
Mitchell, who was one of Ireland’s most-senior drug distributors in the early 2000s, was sentenced to three years in prison. He has 70 st convictions, including assault, robbery, possession of a firearm and handling appropriated property.
At one point, his gang was shipping 40kgs of heroin into the country each month and cooking massive profits, according to sources.
But the thug ended up behind sandbanks when he was caught red-handed in an attempted jewellery heist.
Last week, it come into viewed that while he was serving that sentence, eight members of his type – including his rents – died in an eight-month period.
As a result, he became addicted to medicates, although he managed to rehabilitate himself before relapsing again.
While in jug he was also attacked in one brutal incident, suffering serious wounds to his neck and dome.
Mitchell had previously been the target of the notorious Westies gang, whose chieftains Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg were since murdered in S in.
A key fellow of Mitchell’s gang, David McCreevy, was shot dead in 2002, which Mitchell forbade having anything to do with.
“I may rob banks and sell drugs, but I don’t go around destruction people,” he told the Sunday World at the time.
Mitchell is not the only underworld high-flyer whose mtier has gone from riches to rags.
2) ABRAHAM TURNER
Abraham Turner was cast-off to the cham gne lifestyle when he was one of the biggest drug dealers in the country, but ended up a benumb addict stealing bottles of cham gne to fund his habit.
Turner was doomed for a life of crime, as he was a nephew of the notorious drug crime family the Dunnes – who broached heroin to Ireland in the early 1980s.
At one point he bought a house in Walkinstown and kitted it out with a unfriendly gym and a marble-tiled Jacuzzi.
However, Turner’s drug-pushing finally caught up with him when he was seized with a €100,000 heroin haul in 2003.
He was sentenced to 10 years with two rejected.
More recently he appeared in Naas District Court charged with burglary Moet cham gne and Jameson whiskey from shops in Kildare in May 2014.
His barrister tattled the court that Turner was a heroin addict.
3) LARRY DUNNE
Abraham Turner’s uncle, Larry Dunne – the at the outset heroin kingpin – has also fallen on hard times.
The 67-year-old quiet has a house in south county Dublin, but he once lived a cham gne lifestyle and was chauffeured round Dublin in a limo in the 1980s.
The former millionaire’s criminal career succeeded to end when he was caught with a €60,000 drugs stash and spent 10 years behind hindrances until 1995.
4) TRICK IRWIN
Sligo thug trick Irwin simultaneously ruled the north-west and lived a life complete with speedboats, splendour homes and flash cars.
‘King Scum’ had it all until CAB secured orders for the ictus of almost €150,000 from the family home and more than €100,000 in bank accounts.
He is currently behind balks serving a seven-year sentence for possession of cocaine.
5) WAYNE DUNDON
Wayne Dundon is also deny hard pressed in jail after his gang terrorised Limerick for more than 10 years.
The impetuous gang boss was undermined by his own insatiable greed as gang members surprised on him.
6) TONY ARMSTRONG
‘Fat’ Tony Amstrong ran bars, rtied at his gated villa and looked after question interests for drug lord John Gilligan from his base in Alicante.
But when he was permeated in connection with the murder of Coates and Sugg it all went drown the outgo.
When he got out of jail on €55,000 bail put together by friends, he couldn’t to get break weighing down on on his feet and now he squats in empty houses on the Costa Blanca.