Liverpool man charged with Belfast murder of gangland enforcer Robbie Lawlor

A 41-year-old man arrested in Liverpool has been charged with the 2020 murder of Dublin gangland criminal Robbie Lawlor in Belfast's Ardoyne area.

Liverpool man charged over Ardoyne gangland killing

A 41-year-old man arrested in Liverpool has been charged with the murder of gangland enforcer Robbie Lawlor, killed in Belfast more than six years ago, the Irish Independent reports.

The man was detained by Merseyside Police on Wednesday and transferred to Belfast for questioning by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). He was charged on Thursday evening and is also facing a count of possession of a firearm or ammunition with intent to endanger life. He is due before Belfast Magistrates' Court on Friday morning.

Lawlor, a 36-year-old Dubliner with an address in Laytown, Co Meath, was shot dead on April 4th, 2020, in a pre-planned ambush in the Ardoyne area of Belfast. He had travelled there to collect a drugs debt when a gunman lying in wait opened fire. Several other men have already been arrested and some face charges in the North in connection with the killing.

Investigators believe Lawlor's murder was arranged by men who stood to gain financially from his death — debts owed to him for drugs would no longer need to be repaid once he was dead. The PSNI and Gardaí have been conducting the inquiry jointly.

Lawlor was regarded as one of the most dangerous figures in a feud between two rival drugs gangs operating mainly in the Drogheda area of Co Louth. His brother-in-law Richard Carberry (39) was shot dead in November 2019 outside his family home in Bettystown, Co Meath, in what investigators linked to the same feud. At the time of Carberry's killing, Lawlor was in prison awaiting trial for a separate shooting.

Both men were originally from Dublin's northside and had relocated to Co Meath. Carberry was described as a criminal manager; Lawlor operated as a killer and enforcer. The pair were heavily embedded in the drugs trade across Louth and Meath.

Gardaí believe Lawlor was also responsible for the murder of Drogheda teenager Keane Mulready-Woods (17), who disappeared in early 2020 before his remains were found dismembered and scattered across locations in Co Louth and Dublin.

Source: Irish Independent