Dublin drug boss Brian Mahony’s luxury Coolock home cleaned out by CAB

The house at Riverside Drive in Coolock, north Dublin, has been a target for CAB since Mahony was first identified as being linked to Kinahan cartel figures in 2010.

His wife, Ciara, had previously tried to lay claim to the house, saying she had paid the mortgage and the property’s upkeep.

The Sunday World revealed last week that Judge Alex Owens granted the order and said the receiver has to establish if anyone is living there. He said Ciara Mahony needs to be notified and allowed her liberty to re-enter the house.

However, that looks now looks unlikely as the house lay empty when the Sunday World called this week, paving the way for CAB to finally sell it off.

The furniture, expensive flat-screen TVs and kitchen appliances that were once in the home have all been removed, but the bullet-proof windows and CCTV cameras remained in place this weekend.

It is understood the house has been empty for some time now.

Five years ago, Ciara Mahony was given nine months to leave the property, which she said was her family home.

She argued that she paid the mortgage and paid for the general upkeep of the house – but it was listed as the proceeds of crime, along with other assets, when her husband failed to pay a €1.25 million Revenue judgement.

Mahony told the court she had been making payments on the mortgage and was working shifts at a newsagents, where she was paid €10 an hour.

Brian Mahony originally offered to settle his €1.25m tax bill for €350,000 but CAB sought to seize the property.

He bought the house for €300,000 with a mortgage and €30,000 deposit, which was deemed to be the proceeds of crime.

The judge at the 2016 hearing said he had “a difficulty” accepting Ciara Mahony’s evidence about where she was getting money to make mortgage payments.

He did have “some sympathy” for her and placed a nine-month stay on the orders for vacant possession and sale.

The Sunday World previously revealed how Brian Mahony was a key member of the Kinahan gang, having started out as a driver for members of the organisation.

In 1998, he was arrested along with Coolock drug dealer Gerard Bolger with €250,000 worth of cannabis in a van.

He got a three-year sentence but, on his release, began to move up through the ranks of the criminal underworld.

Mahony linked up with one of the cartel’s money men and set himself up with a legitimate dry-cleaning business to give him cover.

He set up a company with another man from Co. Louth that claimed to be involved in the construction of airfields and sports grounds, but was suspected by CAB of being a front.

He and Ciara moved into the house together in 2006 and bought a holiday home in the south of Spain.

The couple married in 2010 after Ciara had split from another drug-dealing boyfriend, Jeffrey Mitchell, who has since died.

She was jailed for her part in setting up her employer to be robbed by Mitchell in 2002, getting a 12-month sentence for the €60,000 heist.

She was jailed for her part in the robbery of the Perfume Shop in the Square shopping centre, Tallaght, in 2002, during which more than €60,000 was robbed from owner Daniel McKeagney.

Ciara, then named Nolan, was given a 12-month sentence when a court heard that she facilitated the robbery by telling Mitchell of her boss’s movements.

Unfortunately for the gangster, he was under surveillance at the time and carried out a hammer attack on McKeagney in front of undercover officers. He got six years, but went on the run before being arrested again.