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File photo. Sasko Lazarov/Rollingnews.ie

Court hears Kinahan gang carries out 'execution-style' killings as Dublin man jailed for murder plot

Mark Capper was jailed for seven and a half years at the Special Criminal Court today.

THE KINAHAN CRIME organisation carries out execution-style murders and traffics drugs and firearms on an international scale, the Special Criminal Court has found.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt today said the non-jury court accepted garda evidence on the organisation and structure of the cartel as he jailed a “foot soldier” for seven-and-a-half years for helping to plan the murder of Patrick “Patsy” Hutch.

Sentencing Mark Capper at the non-jury court today, Mr Justice Hunt said the defendant “knew well” what was contemplated by his associates and he had a “shrewd appreciation” of the detail and methodology to be used in the proposed murder. He was also capable of expressing doubt as to the details of the proposed plan.

The judge said the 31-year-old’s conduct was intentional as opposed to reckless and he was initially prepared to serve on the front line and offered ideas towards the plan to murder Hutch. There is no doubt he was aware of the nature and structure of the Kinahan organisation, he added.

Referring to the Kinahan criminal organisation, Mr Justice Hunt said the court accepted the evidence that it is a criminal organised crime gang involved in execution-style murders in the context of feuds as well as the trafficking of drugs and firearms on an international scale.

The Special Criminal Court further accepted that the crime gang operated a hierarchical structure with sub-cells engaged to advance its core activities and where directions were issued by superiors within this hierarchy.

Capper was sentenced to eight years and three months imprisonment with the final nine months suspended, backdated to 5 December 2019, when he went into custody.

Capper, who admitted helping the organised crime group with a plan to kill Patrick Hutch, the older brother of the leader of the rival Hutch organised crime group, pulled out three days before the attempted murder.

Capper of Cappagh Green, in Finglas, Dublin 11, pleaded guilty in March to having knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation and participating in activities intended to facilitate the commission of a serious offence by that criminal organisation, or any of its members, to wit the murder of Patrick Hutch within the State between 1 February and 10 March 2018, both dates inclusive.

During the sentence hearing for Capper earlier this month, the non-jury court heard evidence on how the Kinahan gang operates a hierarchical structure, with compartmentalised “sub-cells” acting independently from one another as well as its involvement.

The three-judge court also heard that Capper was hired by the Kinahan organised crime group and the arrival of Storm Emma had scuppered the gang’s first bid to murder Mr Hutch.

Capper has 65 previous convictions and suffered with a drug addiction problem. He was diagnosed with ADHD from a young age, had an IQ of 63 when he was 13 years old and attended a school for pupils with learning disabilities.

In July 2019, a three-man “hit for hire team” received sentences totalling 36.5 years at the Special Criminal Court for planning to kill Patrick “Patsy” Hutch before they were intercepted by gardai just 250 metres from their target’s home in Dublin’s north inner city.

Gary Thompson (35) and his brother Glen Thompson (25) were each jailed for 12 years and six months. A third man, Afghan war veteran Robert Browne (36) was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison.

Gary Thompson, with an address at Plunkett Green in Finglas, Dublin 11, his brother Glen Thompson, of Plunkett Drive, also in Finglas, and Robert Browne, of Phibsboro Road in Phibsboro, Dublin 7 admitted to unlawful possession of four firearms with intent to endanger life at Belmont Hall Apartments, Gardiner Street, Dublin 1 on 10 March 2018.

The four firearms included a 9mm Rak sub-machine gun, a .38 Special Calibre Rossi Make Revolver, a 9mm Beretta 92 semi-automatic pistol and a 9mm Makarov semi-automatic pistol.

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    Mute Andrew Martin
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:01 AM

    “Alright, good night” would be fairly standard crew speak when being handed off from one ATC frequency to another. Yet again this is another fine example of media hype suggesting routine ATC/flight deck crew procedure to be something more sinister…

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:02 AM

    Spot on there Andrew regarding the media hype,A good few years ago there was a charter airline that had some tech issues inflight.
    They made an uneventful landing yet the red top brigade had published a story that the crew could not speak English,My mother asked me about this and if it was true as I worked in aviation,I said no as English is the official language in aviation no matter what country you flly to.

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    Mute Winston Teardrops
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    Mar 12th 2014, 12:15 PM

    Sure don’t you know – we have ‘great white’ sharks washing up on Irish shores now. Circulation and site hits will not be halted by mere truth or rationality.

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    Mute Cian Maher
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    Mar 12th 2014, 8:44 AM

    It’s an aeroplane not a set of car keys… How can it be lost?

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    Mute Genius
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    Mar 12th 2014, 7:47 AM

    Nothing unusual about that when changing controllers,The hypoxia theory may hold the answers but there would have been major alerts in the cockpit.

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    Mute Bill
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    Mar 12th 2014, 7:47 AM

    Greek charter airline Helios B737 crew suffered oxygen starvation and both rendered unconscious due to incorrect selection on cockpit overhead panel aircraft aircraft continued flight until it ran out of fuel and struck hill is it possible something similar occurred here,

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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Mar 12th 2014, 11:16 AM

    The theory is not as the aircraft would have impacted at one spot, it would have also been visible decanting, if it impacted at one spot there would be a debris field. The absence of such indicates a high altitude catastrophic breakup, something not caused by oxygen starvation

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    Mute ipsum oleum
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:51 AM

    I heard that it landed At Knock following rumours of a 6th Garth Brooks concert to beheld in Swinford.

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    Mute Patrick Linehan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 8:04 AM

    In 2003 a Boeing727 was ‘stolen’ on the tarmac in Angola. It has never been seen since. Intelligence experts believe it was taken to Mogadishu where it was going to be loaded with high explosive and used as a flying bomb. Rumors persist that a countries special forces located and destroyed the aircraft.
    Intelligence people are again looking at this scenario as a possible reason for the disappearance of the Malaysian aircraft.
    Whatever happened, its currently a mystery and tragedy for the families.

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    Mute James St John Smith
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    Mar 12th 2014, 8:45 AM

    There there. These men with the medication are going to look after you.

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    Mute Patrick Linehan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:01 AM

    Try googling it dipshit.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:15 AM

    Patrick, are you suggesting that someone stole this plane from the sky? Please elaborate?

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    Mute Andrew Martin
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:20 AM

    May I elaborate on behalf of Patrick? The key word in Patrick’s post is ‘tarmac’. If you ever find tarmac in the sky seek medical attention immediately…

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    Mute Patrick Linehan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:56 AM

    No emergency broadcast, no wreckage, no eyewitness of explosions or a plane falling from the sky. No wreckage. All electronic signals suddenly ceasing, radar not picking up anything. From my limited knowledge the only way this could happen is for the transponder to be manually turned off in the cockpit, also for all the other signals to disappear, again they would have to be turned off or jammed. As for radar, it is possible to fly below or above it. Unless the aircraft or debris is located soon, the viable explanation would be hijacking, there’s plenty of small islands in the Indian ocean, I believe one of the 777′s selling points is its ability to take off & land on a short runway. if hijacking is the case then you have to wonder what is the motivation, do they want the passengers for profit, or do they want the aircraft? unless you want to go with the alien theory.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:15 AM

    Patrick, “from my limited knowledge” that explains it for me.
    So somewhere out there is a small island with a small runway and “they” land this plane on it without anyone seeing it land because on this island there are no people even though someone built a runway on it????
    What are you smoking?

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    Mute Patrick Linehan
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:25 AM

    So what’s your explanation Declan?

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    Mute Ancient History
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    Mar 12th 2014, 10:37 AM

    Pat
    Was listening to an aviation expert on the George Hook show. He was as mystified as anyone. He said the black box on those aircraft will release from the aircraft if it enters the water and begin transmitting. He mentioned that it didn’t happen on the air France flight that disappeared but thought it was unlikely the same malfunction could happen again.

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    Mute Matteen Beag
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    Mar 12th 2014, 2:39 PM

    http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-09-26/html/2013-23456.htm

    My best guess, is the above Airworthiness Directive relating to the trip 7.

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    Mute Loop De Loop
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    Mar 12th 2014, 2:41 PM

    Both black boxes will transmit a signal when immersed in water, but you still need to be pretty close to them to pick it up, especially if the boxes are in deep water.

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Mar 12th 2014, 3:42 PM

    That’s very interesting about cockpit crew being able to switch off the transponder, Pat. Does that mean, then, that the aircraft is undetectable if they also maintain radio silence? Maybe in the case of the black box lightning does strike twice. It’s horrible for the families and friends of those on board.

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:12 AM

    It is normal to ssy good night/good bye while changing ATC frequency,As for the aircraft loosing cabin pressure the flight crew would have put on their face mask, And decend to 10000 feet as per normal SOP also the flight crews oxygen supply is separate from the passengers air supply.
    With ACARS equipped on a aircraft it means that the airlines control center ops/maintenance people etc,Can contact the aircraft via a computer and the message prints off like a till receipt on the center control panel.

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    Mute John Thomas
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    Mar 12th 2014, 1:30 PM

    Am I the only one thinking aliens here? Surprised it hasn’t even been suggested in jest.

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    Mute TIPM (Mick Rooney)
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    Mar 12th 2014, 2:20 PM

    Yes, you are the only one!

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    Mute Sean
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:20 AM
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    Mute TIPM (Mick Rooney)
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    Mar 12th 2014, 11:26 AM

    Be interesting to know if there is any maintanance record of a doubler plate being fitted in the area around the SATCOM box. It had a last service check in February. The Boeing alert from November was raised by a journalist this morning at the press conference and Malaysia Aviation simply replied that the airline got the alert from Boeing and maintainance procedures were followed. I’d be pretty sure NTSB is scouring those records now. Would explain a little – potential structural rupture leading to slow decompression – and the loss of comms and in-the-air transponder signal loss. But it still suggests you should have a signal from the black boxes once down in the water.

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    Mute Genius
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    Mar 12th 2014, 7:11 PM
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    Mute Ian Carty
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:39 AM

    Almost a week now and still no sign. They can find stars billions of miles away with technology and we have GPS and flight apps and they cant find it. Disgrace.

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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Mar 12th 2014, 11:25 AM

    Hardly a valid comparison between celestial objects that have been visible for millennia or are detectable by their extremely large size and gravitational effect and a Boeing 777. If they start using a celestial telescope to search for the aircraft they are in big trouble

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    Mute emily denner
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    Mar 12th 2014, 9:57 PM

    They can track an iphone. They can track a shark. They can even track keys but they cant track a plane with 239 people on it. The government is keeping alot of information private. Maybe too much. People are commenting here arguments when people are overseas crying at airports waiting for loved ones. Disrespect.

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    Mute Edward Cullen
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    Mar 12th 2014, 2:40 PM

    The plane had 7.5 hours of fuel on board when it went missing. What I think happened was that it was hijacked and flown into Russia or some island and the passengers were either shot or told not to say anything. Like a big plane just does not go missing.

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