2023-06-22
Money launderer for West Dublin crime gang caught red-handed with €270k
Stage: Sentence
Plea: Guilty
Outcome: Passing sentence, Judge Orla Crowe said this explanation of a debt was "hard to square" given that O'Reilly had €20,000 in savings in a bank account at the time. "He was caught red-handed," said the judge. "He had been entrusted with a huge amount of money on behalf of a West Dublin-based gang operating internationally in the importation of drugs." Judge Crowe set a headline sentence of four years and described O'Reilly as "vital cog" in the money laundering operation, whose role was to count, bundle and seal significant amounts of cash with a vacuum packer. She reduced the sentence by one year based on several mitigating factors including O'Reilly's early plea in the District Court, his cooperation with gardaí and the fact that it was his first time to engage in this type of offending.