They were taking revenge on McKeown on behalf of notorious mid-Ulster drugs gang The Firm
Not only did Jake O’Brien and Andrew Martin make it easy for cops to catch them, they are unmasked today as the infamous piggy mask gunmen who tried to kill McKeown weeks earlier not knowing he was safe in prison.
O’Brien and Martin – both members of The Firm crime gang – are behind bars as they begin lengthy life sentences for the gangland hit on 54-year-old coke dealer McKeown who was shot as he sat in a BMW parked at the back of a service station in Waringstown on August 19 2019.
Neither killer was particularly professional about the assassination – with Martin being particularly careless as his internet history showed he had searched for how to buy guns, how to sleep after committing a murder and also searched stories about McKeown hundreds of times in the days around the murder.
Last night a crime source told the Sunday World: “Andrew Martin was a total disaster to have on this job and he basically gave the game away and made it easy for the cops.
“What kind of hitman makes searches about committing murder, buying guns and how to get bail as well as hundreds of searches about the target on his phones and then keep the phones in their house?”
“It’s so amateurish and sloppy – they’re a pair of clowns.”
Malcolm McKeown
We can confirm the two men were the same brazen would-be killers who were captured on CCTV at the front door of the Craigavon drug baron’s home wearing sinister pig masks and both carrying guns just weeks before they actually did shoot him dead.
McKeown was the target of a botched murder bid after two would-be assassins wearing piggy masks called at his home.
They fled when no one answered the door – it later emerged McKeown was in prison at the time.
O’Brien is seen here sniffing around the front door as the lead piggy – it’s understood he was the main shooter in the murder four weeks later.
Images taken from CCTV footage recorded at McKeown’s home and passed to us by a source close to the gangster showed the frustrated pig-men waiting, poised to pull the trigger the second their quarry answered the door.
Eye-witnesses who spoke to the Sunday World days after the murder claimed the men pictured here – one dressed in a blue fleece jacket and the other a blue body warmer – were armed when they approached McKeown’s home.
Wearing denim jeans and trainers, they walked past a black BMW car parked outside. And one of them entered the porch area of the property before repeatedly hammering on the front door.
At one point – anticipating the door was about to open – the men readied semi-automatic pistols hidden in the waistbands of their jeans.
But when the door failed to open, they quickly made off. Sunday World inquiries revealed that as his would-be killers were pounding his door in Warringstown, McKeown was in the most secure place possible – behind bars in Maghaberry Prison.
Andrew Martin
The crime boss was awaiting bail having previously appeared in court on aggravated burglary charges.
The bungling assassins in the piggy masks were O’Brien and Martin who eventually got their man – six days after he was granted bail.
They were taking revenge on McKeown on behalf of notorious mid-Ulster drugs gang The Firm which has since been linked to a number of other gangland murders.
A crime source told the Sunday World this week how The Firm is still heavily involved in dealing drugs – specialising in cocaine and crack cocaine.
However, since they were implicated in a number of gangland hits the cross-community gang – which has both loyalists and republicans within their ranks – has changed the way they get their drugs into the country.
Jake O’Brien
“The Firm is still as active as ever but they have learned the hard way it’s best to stay under the radar,” said a source.
“Mid-Ulster is still awash with drugs sold by members of The Firm and the bosses continue to make big money.”
But crime sources have described killers O’Brien and Martin as “amateurs” who were “sloppy” in the way they carried out the murder and how they behaved in the aftermath. For we can reveal Andrew Martin – known as ‘Chimp’ to his criminal pals due to his ape-like features – was so concerned about taking part in the murder he Googled how to cope after committing a murder.
When cops raided Martin’s house they found a phone full of telling internet searches which suggested he had been involved in killing McKeown.
At a hearing last year Belfast Crown Court was told that three mobile phones were seized from Martin within hours of McKeown being shot.
Martin (30), from Bridge Street in Banbridge, was told he will serve 24 years in jail for the murder of the crime boss while O’Brien (31), from Rectory Road in Lurgan, was told he’d have to serve 26 years.
The court heard that at 8.45pm on August 19, 2019, just hours after the murder, police manning a checkpoint on Eastway in Lurgan stopped a grey Volkswagen Golf being driven by Martin.
His Samsung mobile phone was seized from him and cops found a treasure trove of internet searches in the days leading up to the murder.
But to make matters worse, five days later detectives went to Martin’s then home in Lurgan and he was subsequently arrested for the murder of McKeown.
After caution, he said: “I thought this was to do with the drugs.’’
During a search of his home, an iPhone with a cracked screen was recovered.
It later emerged there were hundreds of internet searches across the phones Martin owned relating to McKeown.
The court was told police examined the Samsung phone and under searched items from August 9 to August 18, 2019, there were 19 entries which included terms such as ‘shooting craigavon’, ‘malcolm mckeown’ and ‘malcolm mckeown craigavon’.
The web history on the phone was also examined with titles such as ‘The act of killing aftermath’, ‘Can’t sleep after murder’, ‘Scared to sleep after someone dies’, and ‘Murder accused Malcolm McKeown owed Hugh McGeough money’.
The prosecutor said the phone Martin was carrying when he was arrested for McKeown’s murder also showed searches on this device the day after the killing, with multiple entries for ‘Malcolm McKeown’ and ‘Malcolm McKeown murder’.
.Gunmen wearing pig masks at McKeown’s door
News in 90 Seconds – Saturday, October 18
Other entries included ‘Go America on bail’, ‘How much does bail cost UK’, ‘How long can police hold evidence without charges UK’, and ‘Fingerprints found murder Malcolm McKeown’.
The web history on this phone showed 151 searches relating to the murder of Malcom McKeown between August 20 and August 23, 2019, the day before his arrest.
The iPhone with the cracked screen was also examined which showed that in February 2019, there were searches for ‘Buy handguns online’, ‘When PSNI seize vehicle’.
Its web history showed entries for ‘Man thought handgun was bb gun’, ‘Handguns for sale: Pistols, Revolvers, 9mm – Cheaper than Dirt!’ and ‘Buy no firing pin guns’.
Records showed Martin’s phone powered off at 5.03pm and powered on at 7.29pm, a few minutes after McKeown was shot.
McKeown ran a lucrative drugs empire from his home in Waringstown but over the years had strong links to loyalist paramilitaries and was suspected of being involved in the brutal murders of teenagers Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine in Armagh in 1999.
McKeown, who was in and out of jail throughout his life, was also believed to have been involved in the double murder of husband and wife Hugh and Jaqueline McGeough in their Craigavon home in 2011.