3 days ago
Fugitive Irish mobster feeling the heat in Thailand after cannabis crackdown
Drogheda mob boss Josh Boylan might soon have to flee from his bolthole in Thailand following a crackdown on cannabis in the country.
Boylan, the alleged second-in-command leader of a Drogheda crime gang, has been using the south-east Asian country as his base to flood his hometown with the drug.
However, Thai officials have recently re-criminalised cannabis for recreational use, having only legalised it three years ago.
The move is being made to curb the growing problem of smuggling from the country.
Sources say Boylan will now find it more difficult to source cannabis in Thailand, where he has been holed up for the past three years.
Boylan, 26, from Moneymore in the Co Louth town was named in court by a garda witness two weeks ago as 'second in command' of the Boylan Organised Crime Group 'involved in the large scale sale and supply and importation of drugs'.
Garda John Walsh named Boylan at Dundalk Circuit Court during a money laundering sentencing case for three women.
Josh's brother Keith, 30, was 'identified as the head of the Boylan Organised Crime Group,' that has been at war with paralysed mob boss Owen Maguire and his associates since 2018 when the deadly Drogheda feud erupted and saw four murders including that of 17-year-old Keane Mulready-Woods.
The teen was murdered and dismembered by slain serial killer Robbie Lawlor and his body parts were scattered around parts of Dublin in a killing that shocked the nation in January 2020.
Gardai suspect Josh has been exporting cannabis from his Thai base – where he is now based since fleeing Drogheda in 2022 due to threats on his life following the murder of Keane by his ally Lawlor.
It's suspected he has been using 'drug mules' to transport the drugs in suitcases back to Ireland and destined for Drogheda.
Last week, Thailand announced cannabis buds have been reclassified as a controlled herb with plans to reclassify the drug as a narcotic.
This reverses an earlier legislation to decriminalise its recreational use and effectively restrict consumption of the plant to medical and health purposes only.
A source told the Irish Sunday Mirror: 'Josh is suspected of organising cannabis from his Thai base to be exported via drug mules to Drogheda and this new legislation may well affect his alleged importation of cannabis.
'It's quite possible he may now head to Spain or Mexico where he is alleged to have made contacts over the years and operate from there. But so far it's believed he is still in Thailand while his brother Keith is in Dubai.'
In 2018 Thailand became the first country in Asia to legalise medical cannabis, with South Korea following suit a year later.
In 2022, cannabis was removed from Thailand's narcotics list, allowing for its recreational use. This caused the cannabis industry to boom in the country, with almost 11,000 dispensaries selling products from local farms. According to news reports in Thailand, cannabis smuggling has soared since legalisation.
But the issue got so bad that Thai authorities imposed stricter screening measures at its borders to halt the increase in drugs being smuggled out of Thailand by tourists and by mail.
Several high-profile cases of cannabis smuggling involving young British and Irish women have made headlines this year, all originating in Thailand. One of those was Drogheda woman Jamie Mahon, 32, from Moneymore, who we exclusively revealed was jailed for three years last month in Norway after she pleaded guilty to importing 29kg of cannabis worth nearly €600,000 from Thailand to Oslo. That haul was destined for Drogheda.
And earlier last week, 63-year-old grandfather Patrick Kelly, also from Moneymore, was jailed for three years at Dublin Circuit Court after he was caught smuggling just under 20kg of cannabis, worth nearly €400,000, into Dublin Airport from Thailand.
However, cannabis advocates say the new regulations won't stop smuggling or unlicensed growers, and risk driving up corruption.
Kitty Chopaka, a longtime cannabis activist with the Writing Thailand's Cannabis Future Network advocacy group, which pushes for fair access, told CNN: 'This is a knee-jerk reaction to supposedly addressing the smuggling issue.'
