One of Ireland’s most sadistic and unstable gangland figures, Cornelius Price’s life expectancy from the time he became a violent criminal was well below the national average. But unlike so many others of the ilk, Price didn’t die in a hail of bullets.
e died in a hospital bed in Wales surrounded by his family last week. They sang a prayer as his mother stroked his face as he took his last breath, captured in a video seen by the Sunday Independent.
Price, nicknamed Naily Boy, had been seriously ill for the past 16 months after being diagnosed with limbic encephalitis, an inflammatory disease of the brain. The 40-year-old had been in a coma since October 2021.
Price was mean, violent and volatile, capable of hurting anything
“He went out with a whimper instead of a bang,” said a security source who has spent the past decade investigating the father-of-two for various crimes, including murder.
“His death did not suit his personality. He was brash, violent and volatile, capable of anything. He was the most dangerous criminal I’ve ever encountered. But in another way, his death suited him perfectly – unpredictable to the end.
Operating out of a fortified compound in Gormanston, Co Meath, Price was a key player in the Drogheda feud, affiliated with the Maguire faction, and was directly involved in four murders in Ireland.
The most heinous of his crimes was ordering the death of a pregnant woman, Ana Varslavane, 21, who went missing in 2015 with her partner Willie Maughan, 34. day they disappeared.
Gardaí believes Price feared the pair had information about his gang’s activities and ordered them killed rather than risk being exposed.
William Maughan and Anna Varslavane
Despite extensive searches of the compound, no trace of the couple has been found. Detectives have information that they were murdered and their bodies disposed of by Price’s gang, according to a Garda affidavit filed with the Supreme Court.
“Price has openly ridiculed Gardai over these murders and mocked the Maughan family in their pleas for someone to tell them where their son and his partner’s bodies are,” the security source said.
“The type of man capable of murdering a pregnant woman is one whose depravity knows no bounds.”
Price had “a high degree of intelligence” befitting his barbaric nature, another security source said. Three months before the couple’s suspected double murder at the Gormanston site, he pulled the “ultimate stroke” that allowed him to return to the compound where he felt safest.
In January 2015, Price was released on bail for recklessly endangering a garda, and one of the conditions was that he must live in a house he designated as his home in Clondalkin. However, he soon regretted his choice and wanted to return to Gormanston, so he hatched a plan.
Price got an associate to stage a mock assassination attempt while sitting outside in a car. The balaclava-clad gunman ‘escaped’ in a waiting car without firing a shot, and Gardaí who was on the scene found two 9mm bullet cartridges that had not been used – they had probably just been thrown on the ground.
Gardaí in Co Louth is searching for bodies
Conveniently, the bizarre episode was captured on Price’s home CCTV system, which Gardaí investigated. He then used the fake assassination attempt to petition to have his bail terms changed so that he could move back to his compound in Gormanston, as his life was apparently under threat in Clondalkin.
It worked and he returned to Meath. Gardaí believes that once back in the place where he felt most in control, and surrounded by his gang, he began plotting the pair’s double murder. Less than three months later, Mr. Maughan and Mrs. Varslavane disappeared.
One criminal who matched Price’s appetite for senseless violence was his bitter rival, assassin Robbie Lawlor.
In April 2020, Lawlor was shot dead in Belfast in another murder believed to have involved Price – Lawlor was on the other side in the Drogheda feud.
The pair had repeated arguments in north Dublin over control of the sale and supply of drugs. In 2018, Price assaulted Lawlor in Cork Prison after initially offering a handshake, requiring nearly 30 stitches.
The two were “perfectly matched” in their sadistic penchant for carnage.
Lawlor ordered the delivery of the boy’s head to Price’s compound
“That couple’s hatred of each other was on another level,” said a source. “Strangely enough, if they weren’t sworn enemies, they could have been the best of friends, because they were two peas in a pod — both full-blown psychopaths.”
Lawlor was behind the kidnapping and murder of teen Keane Mulready-Woods as part of the Drogheda feud in January 2020. The 17-year-old was tortured, killed and his body dismembered in what is considered one of the most horrific gang killings in Ireland.
Lawlor ordered the delivery of the boy’s head to Price’s compound. Mulready-Woods was an associate of Price, and this was an incendiary act of brutality to further escalate the feuds between the warring gangs.
However, the criminals assigned to make the gruesome delivery were startled by the attention of the police in the aftermath of the teen’s murder and failed to carry out their task.
All of Drogheda’s feuding criminals were now cornered. Shortly after Mulready-Woods was killed, Price moved to England where he had a network of associates. But he never forgot the atrocity Lawlor had committed against the teenager he adored, and from his new base in the Midlands he planned his revenge.
Gardaí believes Price was a key figure in three criminal groups that arranged the hit on Lawlor in Ardoyne after being lured there under false pretenses.
But even when he was seen in an online video toasting Lawlor’s murder, Price had problems of his own.
He had tried to set himself up as a mediator in criminal disputes in England, as well as refereeing bare-knuckle boxing matches, but unbeknownst to him, he was becoming a target for specialist police.
Ger Dundon in 2010. He has since changed his name to Darren McClean
Just four months after Lawlor was shot dead, detectives had their sights on Price and his gang – including Limerick criminal Ger Dundon, 37, who had changed his name to Darren McClean.
Staffordshire Police launched a surveillance operation on them when they became aware of a £300,000 (€343,000) blackmail and kidnapping plot against alleged rival criminals.
A gang of five men, including Price and Dundon, were arrested in July 2020. Price was charged, but was later deemed medically unfit to stand trial after suffering a brain injury in October of that same year. Dundon alone has been convicted in connection with the plot following a lengthy trial that concluded in London last month.
Price is survived by a wife and two children. Social media has been flooded with tributes and ridicule in equal measure.
His funeral, expected to take place in Co Louth, will include a massive policing plan from Gardaí, who will be prepared for violence on that day.
“He is hated as much as he is loved,” said a source in Co Louth. “He will cause gardaí problems until the moment he goes into the ground, but if he goes into the ground, he will. We can only hope that his death ushers in an era of peace.”