Lavish ‘Scarface' grave of notorious gangster with Wayne Dundon links unveiled
One of the tributes which took centre stage at the funeral of Stephen O'Reilly.
This is the elaborate final resting ground of the once feared and volatile career criminal Stephen 'Pablo' (Reilly) O'Reilly.
The solid marble memorial extends to several feet in length and towers above scores of other headstones inside the grounds of Coosan Cemetery in Athlone.
The father-of-one, who died following a single vehicle road crash in Offaly on May 20 last year, was regarded as being one of the midlands' most violent and dangerous criminals with a string of convictions to his name.
He had also been closely aligned to a feared Longford-based crime gang and was due before a number of courts across the midlands for serious alleged offences.
Reilly's burial plot consists of a solid marble headsone finish with a series of ornate features including a high-end watch and images of the career criminal's muscle bound physique.
A video of the extravagant grave was posted on social media showing the lavish and intricate carvings that make up the deceased gangster's resting place.
Two lion's heads sit at the end of a solid marble headstone dividing a high end watch that lies in front of a head shot of the late mobster.
A pair of carefully sculpted columns complete the opulently finished headstone, which is supported by a solid marble carving while emblazoned with the epitaph: 'The world is ours'.
The video, which has attracted almost 90,000 views on social media platform TikTok, features an excerpt of gangster-esque rap music in a modern day remake of the 1983 Hollywood crime blockbuster Scarface.
Those words feature the voice of Al Pacino as Cuban drug lord Tony Montana saying: 'What do you think I am? A f****** worm like you? I told you, don't f*** with me,' amid the sound of a gun being loaded in the background.
Stephen O'Reilly
Details surrounding the unveiling of Reilly's elaborate final resting place comes just a matter of days after the Athlone burial grounds hosted its annual Cemetery Sunday service less than 48 hours after gardaí uncovered a stockpile of machetes and other weapons inside the graveyard.
Despite no concrete link to any specific gang or faction in particular, gardaí are hoping to make progress over the coming days in tracing the identities of a number of suspects they believe were behind the discovery.
Reilly's sudden death just over a year ago brought with it one of the most extravagant funerals and displays of wealth the midlands town of Athlone has seen in recent memory.
Reilly, who was in his early 30s and also known as O'Reilly, was buried in a large gold-coloured coffin which was lifted into his home in Beechpark West through a front window for his wake.
A sea of ornate floral tributes were likewise laid out in honour of the feared gangster outside Coosan's Our Lady Queen of Peace Church.
One of the tributes which took centre stage at the funeral of Stephen O'Reilly.
One of those displayed a portrait of Reilly showing off his ripped physique with the brazen epitaph: 'The real Pablo….The one and only gangster Reilly'.
Another equally elaborate and brash tribute carried an illustration of a container full of white powder accompanied underneath by the words: 'No comment'.
Another reference to Reilly's criminal past was an equally crass image, this time directed at a named garda.
In the decorative and bordered display, the crude tribute read: 'Detective….0 Reilly 1' below a bottle of black pepper.
Another showed a portrait of Reilly showing off his ripped physique with the words 'The real Pablo, the one & only Gangster Reilly.'
The latter moniker was one the midlands criminal more than lived up to in clocking up 51 convictions at the age of just 21.
'He was an extremely violent individual,' a source told the Irish Independent.
The extravagant headstone of Stephen 'Pablo' Reilly.
Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 5th
'From an early age, he got involved in burglaries in and around Athlone and was suspected of hiding firearms and drugs for a notorious midlands based crime gang.'
In one infamous case he was jailed for two years over a threat to a sister of Roy Collins, an innocent businessman killed by the Dundon gang in Limerick in 2009.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of threatening to kill or seriously harm Leanne Collins at a court hearing in 2011.
It emerged during the case that he knew a man who was friendly with Wayne Dundon, but the trial judge said he did not believe Reilly intended to carry out threats.
Dundon, and Nathan Killeen of Hyde Road, Prospect, in Limerick, are currently serving life sentences for the murder of Mr Collins at the Coin Castle Amusements Arcade on 9 April, 2009.
Although Reilly pleaded guilty he denied he threatened to rape and slit the throat of the woman who was a hairdressing student in Athlone at the time.
Reilly admitted telling Ms Collins that Limerick's gangland figure Wayne Dundon would give him 'good money' for killing her, but said he didn't know Dundon.
He had phoned her and she later told gardaí he threatened to rape her, slit her throat and shoot her during that call.
While he was on High Court bail for that offence, he made a second threat to kill her, this time within earshot of a garda.
It was heard in court how Ms Collins said she had left Athlone because of intimidation and she believed the threats were real and that Reilly is friends with a man from Limerick who is friendly with the Dundons.
Floral tributes left to Stephen Reilly (inset)
Reilly apologised for the threats and said he wished he could change what he had said.
The trial judge said he believed Reilly was sincere in his apology and remorse and said the full facts of the case were less sinister than they appeared.
He referred to reports which described O'Reilly's 'harrowing' life of neglect, abandonment, violence, and brutalisation.
He said Reilly is a man as much sinned against as sinning and is now 'doing his best beyond his years to maintain family unity'.
Viewed in isolation the threats to shoot and rape Leanne Collins, and slit her throat, sounded dreadful 'particularly coupled with connotations of a notorious Limerick figure in the mix,' he said.
But he was satisfied they were impulsive rather than sustained threats and that there was no intention to follow through on them.
'In one sense they were no more than vulgar abuse,' he said.
He imposed two consecutive one-year sentences and suspended the final six months.
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Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
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That too was a JTF operation [Gardaí, Revenue and Defence Forces] and the LE William Butler Yeats was involved in both. The sprawling international investigation into the MV Matthew — as revealed at the time in the Irish Examiner — identified Iranian and Hezbollah fixers and traffickers and the power of the Dubai-based Kinahan cartel. As Detective Superintendent Keith Halley of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) said after the sentencing, these transnational organised crime networks have 'immense capabilities, unlimited resources and global reach'. Lessons from MV Matthew With the MV Matthew the traffickers had even gone to the expense and work of buying and registering their own bulk cargo vessel and directly hiring and running crews to operate it. Sources said that particular smuggling operation was 'overly complicated' and that the cartels have learned from it. 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Picture: Gardaí And watching the gang's 'maritime team' on their fast boat as they approached Broad Strand beach, not far from the coastal town of Courtmacsherry, and the 'ground team' waiting in the van, was the secretive Garda National Surveillance Unit. The Defence Forces had the LE William Butler Yeats deployed at sea and the Air Corps was requested, with the CASA 284 taking off from Baldonnell at 3.50am. Two RHIBs on the Butler Yeats engaged in a high speed chase of the gang's RHIB as it sped away along the coast, towards Waterford. But they were no match for the armed NS Maritime Interdiction Team and were caught. Meanwhile, the two-man landing team were brought to an abrupt halt by the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and DOCB on the road to Courtmacsherry. But experienced officers know that for every good catch they have, multiples are getting through. All you need is a beach 'The reality is we only know the ones we get,' a security source said. 'And given how simple this gang made it look, there could be stuff landing on beaches every night. 'The fact is you don't need a pier anymore. There used to be talk of all the remote piers across the country and how can you watch them. Now, all the gangs need is a beach.' There are an estimated 25 ports in the Republic. According to the Ireland Walking Guide, there are 300 beaches dotted along the coast. The threat posed by gangs using fast boats is affecting much of Europe. Last February, MAOC-N organised an operational workshop because of the 'growing use' of fast boats in maritime cocaine smuggling. It noted the 'expanding operational range' of these boats, adding they were 'increasingly difficult to track and intercept'. As mentioned, South American cartels are using legitimate commercial vessels to smuggle their consignments to Ireland. When the vessels near whatever Irish port they are scheduled to go to, the maritime team takes off and speeds towards it. 'The vessel doesn't even need to stop,' a source said. 'The RHIB comes up behind the vessel, the consignment is lowered down by the crew and the ship continues to port where it offloads its legitimate cargo.' That happened in the Courtmacsherry haul, with the bulk carrier, coming from Argentina, scheduled to dock at Ringaskiddy Port in Cork. Cell structures in drug trafficking Cell structures are not necessarily new in trafficking and the MV Matthew showed that — with bosses in Dubai calling the shots over encrypted phones. 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There has been a massive rise in seizures of just five or 10 years ago. Between 2016 and 2021 the annual total seized ranged from a low of 52kgs in 2017 to a high of 138kgs in 2020. Trying to estimate just how much gets in, without being seized, is very difficult. 'You are never certain how much we are seizing and how much is getting in, but the 10-15% estimate is probably true,' said one security source. The consignments of cocaine bound for Europe that are being seized indicates the sheer scale of cocaine smuggling. MAOC-N made two record hauls of cocaine last year — each of them a colossal 10.5 tonnes. Both consignments were seized by the French Navy, one in the Caribbean and the other Gulf of Guinea, off west Africa, a major supply route to Europe. Drugs hauls around Ireland since April 2023. ie070725 In all, MAOC-N and partner countries seized a total of around 70 tonnes of cocaine in 2024. So far this year, the figure stands at 34.5 tonnes, including one nine-tonne haul, again by the French Navy in the Caribbean, and a 6.4-tonne seizure by the French in the Gulf of Guinea. The EU Drugs Agency (EUDA) said in June that record quantities of cocaine have been seized in Europe in 2023, for the seventh year in a row — 419 tonnes, compared to 323 tonnes in 2022. And just this month the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported record high cocaine production levels, nearly doubling since 2020. 'Europe is being bombarded with cocaine and has been since the start of 2023 and Ireland is on the west coast of Europe,' a security source said. The EUDA and Europol, the EU police agency, have been warning in recent years that because of increased security at the two biggest ports for cocaine importation in Europe — Antwerp and Rotterdam — cartels are redirecting part of the trade to smaller ports in Europe, such as ones in France, Sweden and Denmark. Experts here believe Ireland is definitely part of that trend: 'Absolutely, 100% yes,' said a source. 'Every port in Europe is vulnerable. Cartels look for weaknesses wherever they can find them.' Ireland a weak spot in Europe Compounding this factor is the perceived poor levels of maritime security in Ireland. 'Cartels see and hear that Ireland is a point of least resistance, with the well-publicised lack of naval assets and air cover and the crisis in staffing,' a source said. The Naval Service struggles to get more than one long range patrol ship out at any one time, while a dire shortage of controllers at Baldonnell is restricting and delaying Air Corps patrols and their ability to respond to requests at speed. One security source said the drug operations don't always need a physical aircraft in the sky — namely the Air Corps CASA C295 — and that drones would do the job. 'These gangs are so clever that a RHIB might leave point A and, you think, it's to deliver to point B, say a beach, but the RHIB collects the drugs from the vessel and drops the load at point C, somewhere else, to be picked up by another vessel that you don't know about. If you don't have air surveillance we don't know this.' Some other sources differ to a degree, saying the CASA may actually be cheaper than similar military-grade drones with a similar sensor suite. There can also be issues with endurance of drones and their sensor payload. Another source with knowledge of the Air Corps said that the Defence Forces was 'years behind' where they should be in MALE (medium altitude long endurance) drone space. 'They are like little small planes and have endurance for nine to 12 hours and can give persistence in an operating area in surveillance, say over a mothership," the source said. You could then bring a CASA in, which could react quicker and have better sensors, at least in radar. 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