A SLIGO CRIMINAL who was a “scourge” on his community for years with his drugs operation has been jailed for 11 years by a judge at the Special Criminal Court.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said that Barry Young (38) could have faced 16 years or more had he not pleaded guilty to the charge of directing a criminal organisation.

The judge noted that Young has said he wants to turn his life around but Mr Justice Hunt said he had to punish Young to act as a deterrent to others and to mark the gravity of the social consequences of organised criminal activity.

Mr Justice Hunt said that Young’s gang is “smaller in scope, size and geography” than others that have come before the courts in recent years and, he said, “the violence used did not reach the same level as those other organisations”.

There are more serious gangs, the judge said, and Young’s gang was itself answerable to more serious gangs. But Mr Justice Hunt said he did not want to “understate the destructiveness” of Young’s activities on the people of Sligo.

He described Young as a “scourge on the people of Sligo for a number of years” and he noted evidence that a relatively small community in the west of Ireland is “burdened by four such gangs”.

Mr Justice Hunt set the headline sentence at 16 years but due to mitigating factors, including Young’s early guilty plea, he reduced that to 12 years.

He suspended the final 12 months for four years after his release on the condition that Young keep the peace and be of good behaviour for that period. Mr Justice Hunt said the purpose of the suspension is to acknowledge that he is young enough to emerge back into the community and he wants to incentivise Young’s promises that he would “turn his life in a different direction”.

Father-of-two Young, with a previous address at Geldof Drive, Cranmore, Co Sligo, pleaded guilty at the non-jury court that he, between 4 October 2019 and 15 January 2022, both dates inclusive, directed the activities of a criminal organisation both within and outside the State, contrary to Section 71 A of the Criminal Justice Act, 2006, as inserted by Section 5 of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act, 2009.

Following the sentence, Chief Superintendent Aidan Glacken told the media outside court that Barry Young has been involved in the sale and distribution of controlled drugs for the last 20 years.

“He directed and controlled a very large organised crime gang involved in an illegal business in the northwest of the country and this gang had substantial international links,” he said. 

“In the pursuit of greed and in the pursuit of money, this organised crime gang has caused much harm, much stress, much destruction to society and families through their reckless nature,” he said. 

“Many of those families have suffered from violence, threats and intimidation which is unacceptable in today’s society.

“Over the past number of years in Sligo, we have committed very substantial resources to tackle this crime gang and other gangs involved in the drugs business.
“We will continue in this work to dismantle these gangs, including seizing their assets, their cash, whether it be here or abroad.”

Hearing

At a previous hearing the court heard that drug seizures linked to the gang totalled over €628,000, while Young himself had €40,000 in ready cash despite his only stated income being social welfare payments. Young also dispatched enforcers that he described as “head-the-balls” and “Dirty Harrys” to collect on drug debts, a sentencing hearing was told.

At a previous hearing Detective Garda Inspector Ray Mulderrig told Fiona Murphy SC, for the State, that Young was arrested by detectives from Sligo at Dublin Airport on 11 January this year on his way to Spain in a bid to escape his life of crime and drug-debts.

Detective Inspector Mulderrig told Murphy that gardaí seized Young’s phone and discovered thousands of messages, images, videos and calls relating to Young’s criminal activities in running the Sligo-based gang.

Detective Inspector Mulderrig said Young had 81 previous convictions at the time of his arrest and had been twice sentenced for drug-dealing, with the last conviction for that offence coming in 2006 when he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment.

Murphy said that gardaí examined the phone which was found to contain thousands of “local, national and international” interactions used for directing the criminal gang in relation to the sale and supply of drugs through Young’s “known associates”.

The barrister said the phone revealed a group of “at least” 20 members who operated in a “controlled, hierarchical command structure with directed sub-cells who then directed their own subordinates through a chain of command directed by Barry Young who was ultimately informed of the results”.

Murphy said phone activity revealed messages about drug-seizures, drug-debt enforcement, intimidation, cash lodgements and movements, and the collection and distribution of drugs.

The court heard the investigation revealed a high level of communication regarding drug-debt enforcement and the names and addresses of debtors. Detective Inspector Mulderrig said that while violence and threats were used, violence was the option “least preferred by Barry Young”.

The detective said that investigations of five phones associated with Young led to the arrest of 16 people, six of whom are before the courts, with three of those facing charges of organised crime involvement and money laundering directly attributed to the gang.

Detective Inspector Mulderrig said four of Young’s accounts were frozen which had a cumulative balance of over €40,000, despite Young’s only stated source of income being social welfare payments.

The detective said that in October 2019, a seizure of 2kg of cannabis from a UK associate of Young’s took place in Ballina, Co Mayo. The associate was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on foot of the seizure. Murphy said this caused Young to embark on a path of “panic, fear, agitation and anger” in a “damage-limitation” exercise.

The two kilos of cannabis were valued by gardaí at €40,000 and Detective Inspector Mulderrig said that mobile evidence revealed that Young made two calls to the associate two days before the seizure and had sent messages to another associate to deliver “two Spanish”, referring to the cannabis.

Another associate of Young’s caught with €100,000 of cannabis and €18,000 in cash in January 2020 had a phone number attributed to Young in his phone saved under “Boss”.

A third associate, who was caught with €328,000 worth of cannabis and had a “huge” drug-debt of his own, was used as a courier for cash and drug deliveries in Sligo, Leitrim and Dublin, said Murphy.

After Young’s January 2022 arrest in Dublin Airport, searches in the Sligo area found €36,360 in cash, €145,250 worth of cannabis, €11,000 worth of cocaine and €4,500 worth of valium and diazepam linked to the gang.

Phone data also revealed that drug-debt enforcement involved Young sending individuals to private homes to commit criminal damage and demand money in Sligo and Galway. Young described the debt collectors in messages as “head-the-balls”, “Dirty Harrys”, “Russian fellas”, “mental” and “crazy” dispatched to “fix” debts owed.

A search of Young’s home by Sligo gardaí saw the seizure of banking and vehicle documents, along with business papers for a vehicle recovery business called ‘BY Recovery’, though garda investigations found that no facility or yard for the business existed.

Mulderrig said Young was moving money through the business’ account to a Spanish account held in Young’s name in February and April 2019. The transfers totalling €35,000 were made ahead of his planned departure from Ireland.

Mulderrig agreed with Michael Bowman SC, for Young, that his client had been “cordial, mannerly and pleasant” in his interactions with gardaí.

Drug difficulty

Bowman said his client came from a decent, working class family in Sligo and that Young developed a “significant drug difficulty” that led to his drug-debt issues.

Bowman said Young had been under “enormous pressure” to pay his debts and had been looking for “a way out of the life he made for himself”, adding that Young was preparing to move out of Ireland when arrested.

Mulderrig agreed with Bowman that there had been a legitimate threat to Young’s life due to his debts and that his client’s mental health had suffered as a result.

Bowman said Young had become depressed and suffered anxiety over his debts and his situation that led him to go to counselling where he admitted he had sought to “end it all”.

The barrister said the “enormous” pressure on his client to pay monies back to those above him caused Young to “seek a way out and he sought to take his own life”.

Bowman said Young did not display any “over-trappings of wealth” associated with criminal activity and said his client rented a “nondescript” residence without “fancy clothes, jewellery or foreign holidays”.

The barrister said Young had engaged in counselling and drug and alcohol addiction services before his arrest as far back as 2018 due to the “parasitic nature of the drug trade”.

Bowman said his client described the day of his arrest as a “happy day” and that Young had thanked gardai for catching him because “every day he was trying to find peace with what he has done”.

Bowman said Young had been a “big fish in a small pond” but was answerable to “layers upon layers” of individuals operating above him.