Four women due before court in connection with Drogheda feud

Four women are due to appear before Drogheda District Court this morning charged with money laundering, theft of social welfare and possession and sale of drugs offences.

The four, who are suspected close associates of one side of the feuding gangs in the town, have been targeted as part of Operation Stratus. They range in age from 21 to 44 and are from Drogheda and Balbriggan in Co Dublin.

All four are charged with money laundering offences, two are also charged with theft of social welfare, while one is also charged with Section 3 possession of drugs and Section 15 Sale and Supply of drugs.

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During the height of the feud between two criminal gangs, which escalated in July 2018 after mob boss Owen Maguire was shot several times and left paralysed, there have been four murders and over 100 serious criminal incidents of petrol bombs, serious assaults and a kidnapping.

Over 200 people were involved in the feud at one stage - which also claimed the life of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods, who was murdered and dismembered in a house in Rathmullen Park in the town in January 2020. Two brothers who lead one side of the feuding gangs have fled the country while several others have been jailed for their roles in the feud.

These include Paul Crosby, who was jailed for ten years for facilitating Keane Mulready-Woods' murder, Gerard 'Rocky’ Cruise, who was jailed for seven years, while Gerard 'Ged' McKenna was jailed for cleaning up the house in Rathmullan Park where the teenager was murdered. McKenna was released from prison earlier this year.

Serial killer Robbie Lawlor, who was suspected of the murder of 17-year-old Keane, was shot dead in Belfast in April 2020.

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