The jailing of Peter ‘Fatso’ Mitchell is the final nail in the coffin of John Gilligan’s crime gang, a retired top garda claimed last night.
Pat Leahy said the 10-year sentence 'Fatso' was given in Wales on Friday for drug trafficking is a “significant” moment for the criminal world.
The 51-year-old is the last member of the notorious Gilligan gang which flattened Dublin with drugs 30 years ago.
On Friday, ‘Fatso’ was jailed for 10 years for drug dealing in Wales where police had been keeping an eye on him for some time.
Police discovered 3kg of cocaine witha wholesale value of up to €145,000 hidden in a package of nappies when they stopped Mitchell’s car near Bradford on July 7, 2020.
Speaking last night, former Assistant Garda Commissioner Pat Leahy said he is “long gone from the memory of much of the public, but he’s not gone from the minds of those who deal in crime”.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “This is the first time he has been handed a very heavy sentence; he has really avoided incarceration most of his life.
“He is long gone out of the country. The murder of Veronica Guerin prompted him to go, but what was there to connect him?
“All we knew were the big names in that gang and around Veronica’s death, we don’t know who the small players were and if they are still there.
“It is a significant thing that he’s caught and 10 years is a very long time.”
Several members of Gilligan’s gang are either dead or in jail, and former gang leader John Gilligan is awaiting trial in Spain.
Fatso Mitchell relocated to the Costa del Sol after Veronica Guerin’s murder in 1996, but his past finally caught up with him when he was nabbed in Wales.
Speaking to the South Wales Argus following his conviction, South Wales Police said they were aware of Mitchell’s sinister criminal past.
A spokesperson added: “There had been previous press interest spanning a number of years on Peter ‘Fatso’ Mitchell as he was a former lieutenant of jailed drug baron John Gilligan.”
