Notorious gang boss Cornelius Price appeared to have turned over a new leaf by becoming a ‘hard working man earning an honest living’ before his death, according to his close supporters.
Price, 41, who was suspected of being involved in at least six murders including that of tragic Willie Maughan and his pregnant partner Ana Varslavane, died from a brain disease in a Welsh hospital on Sunday. The stricken gang boss - who was behind much of the chaos in the lethal Drogheda feud that claimed four lives - fled to the UK in 2020 from his “enclave for criminality” fortified compound in Gormanston, Co Meath shortly after the gruesome murder and dismemberment of Drogheda teen Keane Mulready-Woods.
Price’s arch enemy, slain serial killer Robbie Lawlor, murdered and dismembered the teen in January 2020 and Price fled as there were threats on his own life. While in the UK, Price was facing a trial in the UK for his alleged part in a kidnap and blackmail plot.
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However, in October 2021 he was struck down after suffering the brain disease limbic encephalitis and never stood trial. But during the time he was granted bail until he was struck down with the brain disease, his supporters have claimed the notorious criminal was “a hard working man that earned an honest living.”
In a recent video posted by his supporters to the social media platform TikTok, captioned with “RIP Cornelius Price. A hard working man that earned an honest living,” it shows Price working in the landscaping business - cutting hedges outside residential homes as well as chopping down, clearing and shredding trees and loading a trailer with logs of wood. The video ends with Price driving a truck with his work gear on and tips his baseball cap to viewers.
“It’s ironic really as this is probably the first time he earned an honest living with all his involvement in the drugs trade and crime,” a source said. “He was on bail at the time and kept himself out of trouble during that time by abiding by his strict bail conditions, was electronically tagged and was out and about working for a business involved in landscaping and tree surgery.”
Just after his death last month, the depraved gangster’s daughter contacted this reporter to sensationally claim her dad and his associates had “nothing to do with” the murders of Willie, 34, and Ana, 21, in 2015. Alisha, 19, also sensationally claimed that the person responsible for killing the couple is “a major Dublin drug dealer” who is still out there.
“My dad took William Maughan under his wing to help him,” Alisha told this reporter. “My father and his associates had nothing to do with it [the murders of Willie and Ana],” she added, claiming a major Dublin drug dealer was responsible instead.
Gardai believe the couple were murdered by Price and his associates because Price’s gang feared Willie may have had information about the murder of Benny Whitehouse in 2013. The couple were last seen alive on April 14, 2015 at Price’s Gormanston compound.
Price is suspected of murdering Benny in November 2014 in a dispute over the drugs trade in the north-east of the country. Despite numerous searches over the years, tragic Willie and Ana’s bodies have never been recovered.
Price rose to prominence in 2006 at the age of 25 when he teamed up with Owen Maguire- who was shot and left paralysed by Robbie Lawlor in 2018. The mobsters formed the Price-Maguire Organised Crime Group and in recent years they were at war with rivals in the Drogheda feud that resulted in four murders and over 100 violent incidents.
Last week, Price’s funeral took place in Rochdale in Manchester where no expense was spared with three top of the range Lamborghinis leading the mobster’s funeral cortege while dozens of lavish floral displays - including two black floral guns with mock ammunition and a chainsaw- were placed on his grave. And now that feared gang boss Price is dead, the Maughan family and gardai are hoping those involved will now come forward with information on the couple’s murder and where their bodies are buried.
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