The leader of an organised crime group supplying guns, ammunition and petrol bombs to other criminal gangs, north and south of the border, has been jailed for 12 years.
Mark McCourt, aged 34, with an address at Edencrieve, Newry, Co Down, pleaded guilty to six charges in connection with facilitating a criminal organisation to import explosives, firearms and ammunition into the State between 10 February 2023 and 19 July 2024.
The weapons, which included AR15 assault rifles and semi-automatic pistols, were bought at a guns and ammunition shop in Nevada in the USA by a man with US citizenship; smuggled into Ireland in parts, and reassembled here.
Ms Justice Karen O'Connor said today that McCourt was "nonchalant when talking about weapons used to kill", and operated with "a degree of bravado" but he was caught "red handed".
Detective Inspector Shane McCartan from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau told the Special Criminal Court earlier this year that McCourt’s phone was seized when he was arrested for a separate offence in May 2024.
When the data was downloaded, gardaí found text messages, voice messages and videos related to the importation of military grade guns and ammunition and the distribution of the weapons around Ireland.
In text messages to a person known as 'The Keeler', McCourt referred to "picking up rounds of 9mm" and told him "so get the cash ready lol".
The Keeler replied "sound brother" but told McCourt to "get another phone there", "a burner" and that he would "make a group".
McCourt replied "yeh I’ll get one sorted tomorrow mate".
McCourt sent The Keeler a list of guns and ammunition including "AR15" assault rifles and "Glocks" as well as details on ammunition and magazines.
"75k cash is best price, I’ve another man there for them," he said.
The Keeler told him to "send me full list".
McCourt also advised The Keeler that he would need to store the guns and ammunition carefully; "yeah you’ll need some stash, rounds need to keep in a dry place, if they get damp they won’t fire," he told him.
McCourt also offered The Keeler additional explosives for free.
"That’s sound brother, tell them 75K and I'll throw in the 10 pipes for free."
"100% bro," The Keeler replied "another ten for the ten".
The gardaí also downloaded three videos of the guns and ammunition that McCourt also sent to The Keeler showing AR15 assault rifles, semi-automatic pistols and bags of ammunition.
A gloved hand can be seen loading and unloading the weapons, including showing a drum magazine which can hold up to 50 rounds.
The serial numbers had been removed from all but one weapon which enabled the gardaí to trace that rifle to Pahrump, a gun and ammunition supply store outside Las Vegas in Nevada.
It was bought there by another man with US citizenship on 10 February 2023.
McCourt also discussed the sale and supply of weapons with another person known as 'Vladimir Putin'.
McCourt told him "I can get an AR15," and referring to ammunition he said "she’ll drop a deer at 900 yds".
"Can you get a 7.62 sniper pal? 'Vladimir Putin' replied, "Where you get them, we ram raid the place? Over the water?"
McCourt confirmed he got the guns abroad "Yeah mate overseas," and in reply to the question about the sniper rifle "don’t know, can get it priced".
He sent him a picture of the drum magazine on 6 March 2024.
He also discussed other guns, "big ones, good ones" including Glocks and Sig Sauer handguns, assembling them and providing pictures to the prospective buyers.
Detective Inspector McCartan said that Mark McCourt was importing the weapons in parts and reassembling them in Ireland for criminal gangs.
The 34-year-old also dealt with another person known as 'Duff', sending him messages and videos of guns and ammunition.
He told him they were "brand new bud" to which Duff replied "sweet bro - and if I need another AR how soon can I get it?"
"That’s sound," McCourt said, "we’ve a few orders here already man. You let me know closer to the time, so I get a chance to put an order in."
He sent pictures to Duff on 11 March 2024 of two rusty guns and a video of assembled AR15s and ammunition.
"You let me know before they arrive and what’s available," Duff replied. "I’ve a fella looking for them straight away, 2 rusty things, (a reference to two rusted weapons) and 5 of those things you make straight away.
There was also a message on his phone from the man with US citizenship about how close he came to being caught by US security agents whom he referred to as "secondary".
"Pulled in to secondary again," he texted McCourt.
"No way what did they say," McCourt asked.
"There’s your passport, lucky he didn’t take the check bag in, he was about to and I was chatting him," the man told McCourt.
There were also messages on McCourt’s phone in relation to a mule he was using to go to Las Vegas to bring back broken down gun parts.
Gardaí set up an operation and put McCourt and another man under surveillance.
On 19 July 2024 they raided a shed at Blackstick in Ardee in Co Louth after the two men arrived.
Gardaí discovered 82 gun components in two Nike holdall bags in the middle of the floor.
When assembled they made six AR15 assault rifles and 12 Glock semi-automatic pistols. All the firearms and ammunition were found to be in working order and suitable for discharge.
Gardaí also found 800 rounds of ammunition for the weapons in a Dunnes Stores bag.
Earlier that morning, McCourt had bought a pair of microfibre gloves.
A smashed up mobile phone was also found in a blue plastic drum in the shed. When gardaí analysed the data on it they discovered a conversation on it from 24 May 2024 where McCourt and another person discussed remotely wiping the data from the cloud and the phone the gardaí had already seized from McCourt.
Detective Inspector McCartan told the court that this showed his forensic awareness.
He also said he was fully satisfied that "an unnamed criminal organisation was operating under the direction of McCourt" and was involved in "the importation of firearm components and ammunition, the reassembly of guns and the distribution of these and of pipe bombs to other criminal organisations, in Derry, Dublin and Limerick".
McCourt was arrested and interviewed 14 times but nothing of evidential value came from the interviews. His bank documents also showed he made payments to the other man with US citizenship when the guns were bought in Nevada.
That man has dual Irish and US citizenship and could purchase firearms legally in the US.
Mark McCourt has 47 previous convictions including for ramming the car of an off-duty garda at her home for which he was sentenced to three years in prison.
Video and texts from McCourt’s phone were shown in court and gardaí showed the three judges one of the AR15 rifles and a Sig Sauer pistol in court.
Defence counsel Brendan Grehan said McCourt was a plumber by trade, in a stable relationship for the past 11 years and the father of two children aged eight and three.
He said the majority of his previous offending took place when he was aged between 19 and 22.
Ms Justice Karen O’Connor said McCourt’s gun and bomb "business" involved multiple weapons and ammunition, required considerable planning and involved significant sums of cash, but that its impact on society in terms of damage to property and loss of life "cannot be underestimated".
She said there was repeated travel to and from the USA, the use of a mule, and figures like €75,000 cash "bandied around".
Judge O'Connor said McCourt showed forensic awareness in his attempt to destroy phone evidence but was caught "red handed".
"It is difficult to overstate the most serious, violent and brutal nature of the offending," she said.
"Criminal organisations require access to firearms to impose fear and intimidation on society and he had a leading role in this and offered a 'bonus' of pipe bombs," the judge said.
"He was not," she said, "a person with no previous and involved himself in serious criminality here, with no evidence of any threat to him. He was essentially running a business for material gain and nonchalant when talking about weapons used to kill."
"Guns kill, maim, terrorise, and intimidate," she said, and "that’s why criminals want them. Too many are used with [an] insidious and corrosive impact on community."
The judge took into account McCourt’s early plea of guilty, his history of employment as a plumber, his family circumstances, the impact on him and his partner and two children and the fact that he has been using time in custody in a constructive way.
She sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
