How a Meath man rose from a petty criminal to being contracted to kill by the Kinahan cartel

CAOLAN Smyth was an All-Ireland boxing champion at the age of 12, but by the time he turned 18 his attention was anywhere but the ring or the athletes who graced it.

Instead, he had begun crossing the radar of gardaí in Co Meath and Louth as he aspired to emulate the likes of slain drugs boss Eamon ‘the Don’ Dunne, whose picture he carried in his wallet.

It would take less than six years after Smyth was caught for a petty offence in Duleek in 2011 to make his bid to cement his place at the top tier of organised crime.

The 6ft 2in meticulously groomed athlete with a boxing pedigree was contracted by the Kinahan cartel to take out one of their prime targets, James 'Mago' Gately.

Smyth attempted to murder Gately outside a north Dublin filling station on May 10th, 2017, shooting the victim five times but the Hutch associate survived thanks to a bulletproof vest he was wearing on the day.

The new and explosive book Kinahan Assassins, written by crime journalists John Hand and Stephen Breen and published by Penguin, reveals how the gardaí took down Smyth and many others employed to kill for the cartel in its bloody feud against the Hutch organised crime gang.

The botched hit on Gately - who had a €250,000 bounty on his head - marked a real step-up in the level of violence Smyth was capable of and involved in.

Born on 22nd November 1991, he lived in Coolock, north Dublin, before relocating with his family to various addresses in counties Meath and Louth.

Following his parents' split, he left school after Junior Cert and soon was becoming known to gardaí across Ireland's north-east.

In December 2011, Smyth was caught attempting to steal diesel from a parked car at Millrace in Duleek, Co Meath.

He managed to avoid a conviction over the incident when it came to court, but his own solicitor described it as a ‘Laurel and Hardy’ act because Smyth was driving a petrol car.

By 2012, he had his first criminal conviction under his belt at the age of 20 and he featured on the Garda radar more frequently over the following years.

Nothing was deterring Smyth, though, who was only becoming more engrossed in the business of crime.

Smyth worked with various criminal groupings in the north-east and Dublin, but it was his association with the Kinahan-affiliated Finglas gang which created the link for Smyth to take on the task of killing Gately.

Not only was the money too good to turn down, it is also suspected that Smyth saw it as an opportunity.

Detective Superintendent Paul Scott, who has since retired and is now a criminal barrister, told the authors: "Money is the attraction together with the bonus of establishing personal power within their peer group.

"It’s a toxic mix which comes at a price. It’s a world where actions speak far louder than words.

"Smyth was still viewed in the criminal fraternity as a bit of a loose cannon. For him, killing Gately would have firmly established his position as a force to be reckoned with."

Within hours of Gately being shot at the Topaz Service station, on the outskirts of the Clonshaugh in north Dublin, on May 10, 2017, gardai began reviewing the camera footage from the shop.

The system had recently been upgraded and had picked up a side-profile image of the shooter, wearing reflector sunglasses as he approached Gately’s vehicle.

However the major breakthrough came when they examined data from the Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology.

Through this it was established that the reg of the gunman’s car, a black Lexus bearing the reg 08-D-51984, matched that of a vehicle found burnt out in Louth following the shooting.

They soon discovered that the Lexus had been there prior to the shooting, specifically on the day beforehand, May 9, at 3.33pm.

Smyth could be clearly seen in the high quality video of that day, as he wore a plain white T-shirt, navy tracksuit bottoms, cream runners, and a gold watch and had reflector sunglasses on his head.

He put €20 of diesel into his car and held the pump in his right hand, with his distinctive tattoos clearly visible on the same arm.

In another shot, he entered the shop and paid for the fuel and an air-freshener with cash before leaving.

The gardaí had identified their chief suspect.

The investigation team soon discovered from further footage, on the day of the shooting, that Smyth left his apartment in Donore, Co Meath, at 9.34am wearing the same shoes as those seen at the garage the day before.

The black Lexus was then seen in the Clonshaugh area from 10.05am, lying in wait for Gately to move from his home.

Gately was collected from his Coolock home and brought to the location of where his car, a wine Ford Mondeo, was parked, which he then drove to the shop. Smyth stalked his victim all the way.

When Gately went into the shop, the gunman’s car could be seen entering the forecourt and parking at the truck stop. When Gately emerged and sat into his car, the trigger man pulled up and struck.

The black Lexus - which had previously been owned by the Pakistan embassy and had a diplomatic licence plate - was later found torched at Newrath, near Castlebellingham in Co Louth.

Smyth was arrested over the hit for the first time in July 2017 but was released without charge over that murder bid.

By this stage, officers were warned that Smyth had access to firearms and to exercise caution when dealing with him.

After becoming a target in the Coolock feud in 2019, Smyth was issued with a Garda Information Message warning him his life was in danger. But the following month, October 2019, Smyth was arrested once more and charged.

At his trial in 2020, the prosecution relied on the CCTV and mobile phone evidence to track Smyth's movements before he was found guilty of attempting to murder Gately.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said Smyth was a "ruthless and dangerous" man before jailing him for 20 years.

As Smyth was led from the courtroom on the day of his sentencing, he turned to his family in the gallery and said: "Five World Cups and I’ll be out."

Navan native crime writer exposing dark secrets of the orgnaised crime underworld

MEATH man John Hand (pictured right) is the co-author of ‘Kinahan Assassins’, his first book.

Raised in Navan, John attended St Patrick’s Classical School in the town where he did his Leaving Certificate in 2013 before studying journalism and visual media at Griffith College Dublin. It was in his second year of his degree that the current editor of the Meath Chronicle, Gavan Becton, gave him his first job in the Irish Sun newspaper.

The journalist was a news reporter with the title before he left to take up a role as the Irish Mirror's chief reporter in 2021. In January 2024, he returned to the Irish Sun as its news and crime correspondent.

The 28 year-old has been shortlisted across a number of categories in Newsbrands Ireland's national journalism awards in recent years, including the crime journalist and young journalist categories.

Speaking about the new book, John said: "It was always one of my aims in my career to do a book so I'm delighted to have got there, along with my colleague and co-author Stephen Breen, on this project.

"The Kinahan and Hutch feud was an extraordinary time in Irish life, when the cartel recruited an unprecedented number of hitmen to murder.

"This book gives a new insight into how the gardaí took them down, with conversations from wiretaps, insights from the officers at the heart of the investigations and interviews with the loved ones of the innocent people caught in the crossfire."

***Kinahan Assassins is published by Penguin and is available at Eason and online now.