Kinahan cartel target Gary Hanley has broken his silence and claimed he’s “hiding from no one” despite several attempts on his life.
Speaking exclusively to this paper, Hanley, who has been targeted multiple times by the Kinahans and has not been seen in public in years, also claimed he’s writing a tell-all book where “the truth” will be heard.
We were contacted by Hanley following our story last week about the first pictures of him nearly five years on from when a Kinahan cartel hit team tried to murder him in Dublin.
Hanley said he disputed claims that he has been in hiding, and insisted he’s not a member of the Hutch gang, or any other criminal gang.
READ MORE: Gardai had to sweep churches for bombs and man rooftops for Hutch wakes and funerals
“I'm not a member of any gang or any criminal organisation, and I hide from no one,” he said.
Hanley, who has 30 previous convictions also insisted: “I’m an innocent family man. You have told enough lies.”
He then claimed he was writing a book.
“Read the truth when my book is published soon.”
We asked Mr Hanley if he wanted to explain what he felt was inaccurate in our reporting, and gave him an opportunity to further comment before this article went to print.
This is the first time Hanley, who has been considered by gardai to be an associate of the Hutch faction, has ever spoken, since surviving extremely well organised attempts on his life by the Kinahan gang.
The convicted criminal managed to avoid being murdered by the Kinahan gang several times - notably avoiding being shot by a five-man hit team in November 2017.
The cartel again tried to have Hanley murdered by gunman Paul Beatty in June 2018 - and since then he has rarely been seen in public.
But in the wake of several garda victories against the Kinahan cartel, Hanley has recently braved a rare appearance in public - posing for photos with his family at Legoland.
The photos show a clearly more-relaxed Hanley out and about - five years on from when ruthless hitman Alan Wilson, Kinahan cartel gangster Liam Brannigan and three others tried to whack him outside his Dublin home.
Wilson, who is a nephew of notorious gangster Martin ‘The General’ Cahill was part of a five-man Kinahan hit team, hired to take out Hanley - a sworn enemy of the cartel and associate of the Hutch gang in 2017.
But the bungling gangsters were caught in the act, as elite armed gardai had been surveilling them for days -and had bugged their phones.
Elite members of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau had to wait until the gang were on their way to Hanley’s home with the murder weapon in order to swoop and catch them in the act.
Liam Brannigan, 37, a key member of the Kinahan cartel from Bride Street, Dublin 8, was convicted of conspiring to murder Hanley at a location within the State between September 15th and November 6th, 2017.
Mr Justice Paul Coffey said the evidence against Brannigan derived from four areas, including covert audio recordings from several cars bugged by gardaí.
Armed gardaí intercepted a Volkswagen caddy van just 500 yards from Mr Hanley’s home on the night of November 6th, 2017, when two men, Joseph Kelly and Luke Wilson, were found with a loaded semi-automatic pistol.
Joseph Kelly, Luke Wilson, Alan Wilson and Dean Howe, have all previously pleaded guilty to the same offence - while Brannigan had pleaded not guilty.
Mr Justice Coffey, reading his judgement, said almost immediately after the men were stopped, they could be heard on an audio recording, saying “It’s the old bill, we’re set up, we’re set up”.
Hanley himself has more than 30 previous convictions for offences including drug dealing, serious assault and other crimes.
He has served time in prison, most notably for stabbing a woman in the face with a set of keys while she was holding her baby.
He was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of assaulting the woman causing her harm and for threatening to kill or cause her serious injury at Clontarf in Dublin on March 15, 2007.
The victim needed 20 stitches to her face and was left with two permanent scars from the horrific attack.
While carrying out the attack, he called her a "bitch" and told her: "Next time you will get it in the heart."
His pal Jason Molyneux was also murdered - shot up to six times by hitmen gardai suspect were working for the Kinahan cartel.
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