Battered border drug-lord ‘The Chocolate’ vows revenge for embarrassing pub beating

The Newry crime boss needed hospital treatment after he was on the wrong end of a fight in a city bar last month.

Images shared on social media showed the self-styled hardman seemingly unconscious and with a bruised and battered face.

There was speculation he had suffered a fractured skull but the Sunday World understands he was released after treatment for cuts, bruises and concussion.

His assailant, who also needed treatment at Newry’s Daisy Hill Hospital, found himself in a neighbouring cubicle and only for the presence of police officers in the emergency room on a separate matter would have ``finished the job.’’

Chocolate, a notorious criminal in the border city, is facing a raft of criminal charges and is looking at significant jail time if convicted.

But he has told associates that he intends to exact revenge and is prepared to bid his time.

Gang members have also been put on alert should they encounter Chocolate’s nemesis.

The drug dealer was left in a blooded and embarrassed heap after a confrontation in which he was accused of spiking a man’s drink in a previous incident.

The argument quickly spiralled into a full on fist fight. At point one of Chocolate’s hoods got involved.

Chocolate’s opponent is described as a well respected law abiding citizen with no criminal convictions.

“That won’t stop Chocolate, “ a criminal source in Newry told us.

“He will not take this lying down, he has lost face, particularly for a man whose reputation is based on his hard man image.

“Chocolate runs his business on fear, he thinks people need to be afraid of him to get respect so to get a beating in the bar is not good for business as far as he is concerned.”

Chocolate has a reputation for brawling and is not slow in raising his fists.

He is understood to have been involved in a street fight before Christmas and he has a long history of bar room brawling.

Over the years he has clashed with rival drug gangs, at one stage his home was targeted by dissidents, but he has remained on the border city’s most significant drug dealers.

However he is currently facing drug charges after he was was detained as part of a Europe-wide investigation called Operation Venetic in which criminals using encrypted mobile devices to import and export drugs were targeted.

Commonly referred to as EncroChat, criminals have used encrypted mobile devices to adopt and hide behind code names.

Around 60,000 users of EncroChat have been identified worldwide, with about 10,000 of them in the UK – all involved in coordinating and planning the supply and distribution of drugs and weapons, money laundering and other criminal activity.

A number of people in Northern Ireland have been arrested and charged with a small number of cases already having passed through the courts.

The Chocolate will be one of the highest profile mobsters to be taken down – if convicted.

But until his trial it has business as usual for one of the most prolific drug dealers in the North.

Last August he was involved in an altercation which resulted in the temporary closure of a bar in the border city.

There was a confrontation after members of staff at a Newry bar raised concerns over The Chocolate’s mob using it for drug deals.

It is understood a complaint was made to the bar manager who confronted an individual who is a known associate of Chocolate.

It resulted in the arch criminal being called and his arrival at the bar.

It’s not the first time The Chocolate has been involved in a bar-room confrontation.

A number of years ago a member of staff at another Newry bar was on the wrong end of beating at the hands of the crime boss after he tried to have him barred because of drug dealing on the premises.

The notorious mobster has a reputation for extreme violence and has been known to inflict brutal beatings, on one occasion dragging a driver who worked for Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy into the street and giving him a hammering.

The Sunday World first uncovered Chocolate’s activities when he muscled in on the border city’s lucrative drug trade pushing aside Barney “King Coke” Morgan.

Morgan, who also does not have criminal convictions, controlled Newry’s drug trade for years until the arrival of Chocolate.

Chocolate 49, is regarded as one of the more prominent dealers around Newry and is widely feared because of a volatile temper and his unpredictability.

In 2019 lunchtime drinkers at two pubs across the border in Omeath were left stunned when a clearly drunk Chocolate fire six shots into the air before driving off.

He took exception to being recognised and went outside loosing off three shots, before driving to another watering hole where he carried out a repeat performance.