A Galway criminal who was the first to be charged under Ireland’s gangland legislation has made history again after he pleaded guilty to a string of offences in the north where he was nabbed by his Encrochat phone.

Notorious crook Michael O’Loughlin was one of a huge number of suspected criminals lifted after cops hacked the encrypted phone network in 2020 which was being used to send messages between gangs.

It is expected he would go to trial and that his case would be the first to test the legality of the process before a Northern Irish court. However, he pleaded guilty to more than 40 offences including conspiracy to murder and import heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis and was handed down a 12 year sentence.

Nicola speaks to Niall Donald about O’Loughlin and his run of bad luck with the law.

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