Ruthless crime boss Cornelius Price paid over €100,000 for hitman Robbie Lawlor to be assassinated in retaliation for the murder of teenager Keane Mulready Wood, Gardai believe.
It is understood that he fled Ireland to Britain weeks after his release from prison at the height of the Drogheda drugs feud in February,2020 because he was terrified Lawlor would kill him first.
Price,41, who died from a brain disease last February, used a rival crime group to hire Lawlor to carry out a hit in Belfast. The whole arrangement was made via contacts in Mountjoy Prison.
READ MORE: Ruthless mobster Cornelius Price ordered execution of rival over unpaid €30,000 drug 'tax'
But the whole job was a set up and a killer was waiting to execute Lawlor while the intended target hid in safety.
Gardai say the whole fake hit took weeks to set up and they believe Price paid over €100,000 for it.
Lawlor had blamed Price for the killing of his brother in law in Bettystown, Co Meath and had vowed to get his revenge on Price.
But Price also knew on a social level the father of Drogheda youngster Keane Mulready Wood,17, who was abducted and murdered by Lawlor and whose body was dismembered and dumped in various places in one of the most appalling murders Ireland had ever seen.
Price and his associates were outraged at the brutality of the killing and believed Lawlor and his allies had crossed a line and taken the feud to a whole new level.
The Balbriggan drug lord then moved his close family from his compound near Gormanston, Co Meath to Rochdale outside Manchester where he knew they would be safe and vowed to take Lawlor out, no matter how much it cost.
A Garda source said; "Price was no angel and he had plenty of blood on his own hands in his own criminal career but he was shocked by what Robbie Lawlor had done to Keane Mulready Woods..
"We believe he paid over 100,000 to set up Robbie Lawlor and that is exactly what happened.
"Price felt Lawlor had to be stopped before he killed him or members of his family. It was like something you'd see from a Netflix Narcos movie.
"Price and his partner often socialised around Drogheda and knew plenty of people in the town."
Lawlor, 36, was shot dead at the front of a house in north Belfast in April,2020. Two people have been charged with the murder but it is believed the shooter and his getaway driver came from the south and fled back across the border.
Price put a video out on social media toasting Lawlor's death hours after the murder.
The Garda source added; " These two guys had history and absolutely hated each other's guts. Ironically both are dead now and it was the brain disease and not gangland which got Cornelius Price in the end.
" He probably did the world a big favour getting rid of Lawlor who was a madman and literally just killed for fun. The murder of young Mulready Wood changed everything and the fallout was immense."
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