MOB boss Barry Young has pleaded guilty to directing a criminal organisation - a charge which can carry up to life imprisonment.
A massive 16,000 text messages taken from WhatsApp were among key evidence against him, which will be heard during sentencing.
But while the 37-year-old Sligo gangster is undoubtedly facing a jail term, is he really just a shrewd businessman who knows that doing porridge is part of the game?
Nicola Tallant chats with Niall Donald about the most-prolific crime boss in the north-east who has carefully built an extensive drug operation on a mixture of cunning and good fortune, but whose luck has finally run out.