'Mr Flashy' to be sentenced this week after pleading guilty to violent disorder
A criminal known as 'Mr Flashy' - who was jailed over the possession of an AR-15 rifle - is due to be sentenced this week after he pleaded guilty to violent disorder and endangerment.
Glen Ward, who has been referred to as Mr Flashy and the leader of the 'Gucci Gang' during a recent High Court case, was arraigned at the beginning of May.
We have learned that Ward, 32, was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Friday, May 2 where he entered a guilty plea to the charge of violent disorder by using or threatening to use violence at the Cardiffsbridge Road Deanstown Green junction in Finglas on August 9, 2022.
A sentencing date of Wednesday, May 21 was pencilled in.
His brother Eric O'Driscoll (23) has already entered a guilty plea to the same violent disorder offence and is also due to be sentenced on the same date.
In a previous bail hearing in relation to the violent disorder charge, the district court heard that gardai had responded to reports of a group with knives and pitchforks, while there was mention of a firearm.
Both brothers were jailed in the Special Criminal Court last month for possession of a .223 calibre Remington AR-15 semi-automatic rifle which was fired from the back door of a Finglas home during a house party.
They both pleaded guilty to that offence and Ward was sentenced to five and a half years while O'Driscoll was sentenced to five years.
During that sentencing hearing, Ms Justice Melanie Greally said the firearm Ward used was powerful and capable of causing serious injury or death. She noted that gardai found the weapon alongside a "sizable cache" of ammunition.
Video footage retrieved from a phone showed Ward, having already fired the gun, encouraging his younger brother Eric O'Driscoll to take and discharge the firearm, she added.
Gardai discovered the rifle alongside a military submachine gun during a search of a house in Finglas in February 2022.
Ms Justice Greally said that in June of that year, gardai responded to reports that shots had been fired at a taxi on the Tolka Valley Road.
When they searched the taxi, they found a phone that they were later able to connect to O'Driscoll.
Analysts discovered a video clip on the phone in which Ward could be seen pointing the AR-15 rifle towards the sky and firing. Ms Justice Greally said a number of young people were present and watching.
Ward, she said, then handed the firearm to O'Driscoll, who fired three shots into the air.
Ward was named in the High Court as the leader of the Kinahan-affiliated 'Gucci Gang,' during the €1.7m CAB case against Kinahan Organised Crime Gang's top lieutenant Ross Browning in 2022.
Investigators established Ward's links to Browning as a "known associate" as well as a number of other associates including 'Fat' Freddie Thompson, who is serving life for the Hutch/Kinahan feud murder of Dathai Douglas.
In an affidavit opened during the CAB case against Browning, a top detective gave details of the Kinahan Organised Crime Gang describing it as a "transnational organisation whose activities are not just murders, money laundering and controlled drugs but also involved in the importation of firearms into Ireland, the UK and Europe with a €1 billion worldwide network."
Glen Ward was then named in an affidavit by another senior detective as "an active member of the Kinahan Organised Crime Gang who directs the 'Gucci Gang' from an address on Ratoath Road in Finglas."
"That gang got this name due to their penchant for designer clothes and jewellery," the sworn affidavit stated.
Details were given before the High Court of that property on Ratoath Road as "having bullet proof windows, a fortified door and pit bulls in the front garden to protect against garda searches of the property."
The property underwent a number of attacks, the affidavit continued, with Ward being seen in the company of certain individuals including Caolan Smyth, a gunman for the Kinahan organised crime group.
Smyth, 33, from Donore, Co Meath is serving 20 years in prison for shooting rival Hutch gang member James 'Mago' Gately five times on May 10, 2017.
The sworn affidavit by the senior detective also stated that it is the detective's belief that Mr Ward "is engaged in the distribution of controlled drugs" in Dublin and wider regions.
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