When Sean McGovern, a trusted member of the Kinahan organised crime cartel, was extradited from Dubai last May he can’t have known the depth and breadth of the evidence gathered by the Gardaí that would prove that he had directed cartel murder plans at the height of the deadly Kinahan-Hutch feud.

It was all laid out in the Special Criminal Court this week as encrypted phone messages between him and fellow gang members during 2015 and 2017 were read out, surveillance footage from over a decade ago was shown and data culled from his laptop was revealed.

The solid case against McGovern (40) saw him plead guilty to two charges of directing an organised crime gang.

According to Irish Times Crime and Security Editor Conor Lally, the encrypted messages read out in court show how casually the Kinahan cartel talked about taking lives – and how hard they worked at it.

In this episode, Lally details how the sentencing trial unfolded, the drama in court and how McGovern, once a feared lieutenant who thought he had escaped justice by fleeing to Dubai, reacted.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.

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