'Get the cash ready' - Texts of man selling guns revealed in court after Garda sting

A plumber identified as the boss of a gun-running ring told a prospective customer he would throw in 10 pipe bombs as a free gift to seal a €75,000 cash deal to supply guns and ammunition smuggled by air from America, a sentencing court has heard.

Mark McCourt (34), of Edenrieve, Newry, Co Down, appeared before the Special Criminal Court on Monday, after pleading guilty last week to firearms offences and participating in a criminal organisation’s efforts to import restricted weapons.

A senior garda said in evidence to the three-judge court that he was “fully satisfied” that there was a criminal organisation in existence under the “control and direction” of McCourt “whose function was the importation of firearms components from the USA to Ireland, and the reassembly of these restricted firearms for onward distribution to other criminal organisations”.

Detective Inspector Shane McCartan of the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, who led an investigation into the gang’s activities last year, said a firearms technician had been able to assemble 82 gun parts seized in a raid on a property in Co Louth last year into six assault rifles and a dozen pistols.

Det. Insp. McCartan said McCourt had already been identified in connection with the suspected importation of firearms when the defendant was arrested for something else on 24 May 2024 and had his phone seized.

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Gardaí were able to extract data from the phone shedding light on the activities of the smuggling ring in the preceding year, along with conversations with prospective customers in messages on Signal, WhatsApp and Snapchat, the witness said.

Det. Insp. McCartan said McCourt and his co-accused both flew to Las Vegas, Nevada on three occasions in April and May 2023.

On April that year, following their return from the trip, McCourt told one prospective customer -- who used the alias “The Keeler” – “we got sorted this evening” and that it would take a few hours to “stick them all together”, the court was told.

“So get the cash ready lol,” McCourt added, before telling The Keeler to “get another phone” as a “burner”.

In further text exchanges with The Keeler, McCourt wrote: “€75k cash is [the] best price” and that he had “another man there for them today”.

He said the receiver of the firearms would need “a dry place like a hot press or that” as a “stash spot”.

“If they get damp, they won’t fire, that’s why you see boys there and they’re misfiring, because the powder is damp,” McCourt wrote.

He then added: “Tell them 75k and I’ll throw in the 10 pipes for free.”

Det. Insp. McCartan said: “It’s my belief that refers to pipe bombs.”

He said one of a number of videos found on Mr McCourts phone, which were screened in court, had captured a serial number on an AR-15 rifle made by Anderson Defence traced to a sale on 10 February 2023 at a shop called Parumph Guns and Ammo near Las Vegas.

“It was purchased by the co-accused on 10 February 2023,” the witness said.

As the videos were screened for the court, Det Insp McCartan said that what was being shown were “AR-15 assault rifles, military grade” and their magazines, including one “drum magazine” which could hold upwards of 50 bullets. A “significant quantity” of loose rounds was also to be observed, he said.

When a detective held up an example of one of the seized rifles in court, the detective inspector said: “Judge, it should be noted that all of the firearms had their serial numbers bored off.”

Prosecuting counsel Simon Matthews BL, said that after another trip to Las Vegas in May 2023, a text from McCourt’s phone to a prospective buyer under the alias “Vladimir Putin” said: “I can get an AR-15… she’ll drop a deer at 900 yards, no problem.”

“Vladimir Putin” then asked about buying a “7.62 sniper” – and about the source of the weapons.

“We ram raid the place across the water,” McCourt replied, adding: “Yeah mate, don’t know, but I can get a price.

In another exchange stored on the seized phone, another prospective customer under the alias “Duff” asked: “Sweet bro, and if I need another AR [assault rifle] how soon can I get it?”

“That’ll be next month… but they’re definitely there to be got,” came the reply by voice note, which was played to the court.

Defence counsel Brendan Grehan SC said that while the videos and pictures “were seized from his phone” the prosecution was not able to state that Mr McCourt had recorded them.

Det Gda McCartan said he and his team had “a serious concern” in late June and early July 2024 that the gang would import another load of weapons and sell them on.

The court heard gardaí commenced a surveillance operation and obtained warrants for a shed and lands at Blackstaff, Ardee Co Louth.

McCourt and another member of the gang were arrested when Bureau detectives and armed officers from the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) raided the premises on 19 July 2024.

The 82 firearms parts were found “all in the one suitcase” in the shed, along with nearly 900 rounds of pistol and rifle ammunition found in a Dunnes Stores bag on a sofa there, the witness said.

Det Insp McCartan told the court the defendant has some 42 previous convictions including assault causing harm, theft, and dangerous driving “on the high end”.

He said McCourt and was jailed for three years, with 18 months suspended, on foot of a conviction for a criminal damage incident in which he had gone to the home address of an off-duty garda at 2.55am and “rammed” her car.

He agreed with Mr Grehan that this period of offending was when the McCourt was aged between 19 and 22.

Mr Grehan presented the court with letters from local businesses which had used his client as a plumbing subcontractor and stated that they found him “courteous and professional”.

He said his client was the father of two children, and that his fiancée and her mother were “standing by him”.

Asking for “the maximum mitigation allowable”, Mr Grehan said he had been “asked to tender an apology on his behalf to the court and the State for getting involved in these matters, and also to his family and the shame he’s brought to them for this”.

The State is to make further submissions on the gravity of the offending when the case is heard again on Thursday. However, Ms Justice Karen O’Connor, presiding, said the court would not be in a position to finalise sentence until a later date.