Family’s anger after criminal case dropped in Irish drug dealer’s death

It comes after a decision not to prosecute anyone over the Sligo native’s death at a holiday resort in August 2022.

Seven people had been arrested by police in Sussex on suspicion of murder after reports McDonagh (53) died while being restrained.

His family greeted with anger the news that no-one is to face charges and vowed to continue their fight for justice.

The Crown Prosecution Service opted to drop the case February and the police file to be passed onto the coroner.

No date for the inquest has been set as yet.

His daughter Stephanie told BBC Radio Sussex at the time that getting justice for her father had kept their family going.

“The last 18 months were the worst we’ve ever, and possibly will ever, have to endure.

“It’s absolutely devastating that this tragic event will go unpunished.”

“We’re going to continue to fight on dad’s behalf. We’re not going to let this go.”

McDonagh left Ireland more than 20 years ago when he became a target of the Criminal Assets who considered him a major drug-dealer in the region.

He moved to Spain where he was then a suspect in an incident in which two English men were shot and injured in a bar fight.

In 2009 McDonagh was arrested in Amsterdam and extradited to the UK to face charges over a multi-million drug dealing operation.

Later that year he was jailed for seven years.

“Michael McDonagh headed up the organised crime gang which delivered cannabis and other drugs throughout England along with UK national Darren Finch,” according to the National Crime Agency.

“The drugs were imported from Germany and the Netherlands hidden in lorry loads of legitimate goods.”

A lorry driver would then “take the drugs to one of two hubs from which the gang’s criminal activity was coordinated, St Margaret’s Farm in Dartford or Lested Lodge in Chart Sutton, Kent.”

Gardai suspected he was also connected with a €500,000 cannabis haul in Tubbercurry in 2000 and owned properties in both Ireland and Spain.

The Criminal Assets Bureau successfully seized McDonagh’s house in Co Sligo after proving that it was bought from the proceeds of crime.

Spanish police also linked him to a bar brawl in which two Englishmen were shot in the resort of Benalmadena.

The two men couldn’t remember what their attacker looked like and were unable to give police a description.

McDonagh was buried in a gold casket in October 2022, two months after his death following a funeral at Sacred Heart and Mary Immaculate Church in Mill Hill, London.

Around 200 people were in attendance including some who had travelled from Ireland.

Speaking after her father’s funeral service, Stephanie McDonagh said: “Dad was loved by everyone, what happened to him shouldn’t have happened.

“He was there with his family and he should have had a nice time, and he should have come home and he didn’t.”