A man who was abducted and tortured as part of a gang feud is believed to have been driving a car containing gas cylinders “destined for the home of associates” of a rival faction.
Aaron Rochford, 22, is also understood to have been ordered to drive the vehicle on the night by associates of paralysed Drogheda crime boss Owen Maguire.
The new information has been revealed in affidavits opened during a recent Criminal Assets Bureau case at the High Court which was granted interim orders over its attempt to seize more than €300,000 in cash and properties from Owen Maguire and his brother Brendan Maguire.
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Two associates of the anti-Maguire faction – Dean Thornton, 25, and John “JJ” McGahon, 22 – were jailed for roles in the abduction of Mr Rochford on November 11, 2018.
Thornton has since been released from his sentence while McGahon is currently behind bars. Two other associates of the anti-Maguire faction, who were charged in relation to the kidnap and torture, have been on the run overseas since 2020.
Now we can reveal that on the night of Rochford’s horror abduction and gruesome torture he is believed to have been driving a car containing two gas cylinders destined for the home of the leader of the faction in the Moneymore estate in Drogheda, Co Louth.
Gardai also believe associates of Owen Maguire were responsible for ordering the car to be driven to the house.
Both McGahon and Thornton as well as two on-the-run brothers, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, were arrested after officers forced entry to a house in the town following a 999 call describing a man being abducted.
Rochford, who subsequently died in non-suspicious circumstances in 2019, was found by gardai in a state of shock, unclothed in a bathtub and covered in blood having sustained a broken jaw and slash wounds to his torso and head.
The feud has claimed four lives including the killing and dismemberment of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods in January 2020.
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