Mario Rea was issued an Osman warning following detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland passed intelligence to Strathclyde Police.
An ex-boxing promoter who was a trusted lieutenant in a gangland killer’s crime mob was locked up for six years last week. Mario Rea, 47, was a sidekick on the streets for Robert “Birdman” O’Hara, 48, while he was behind bars for the murder of a rival.
Rea admitted playing a key role in O’Hara’s drugs empire while the gangster directed operations from behind bars.
He used dirty cash to bankroll the lavish lifestyles of O’Hara’s partner and daughter of luxury flats, fast cars as well as designer clothes and watches.
He had earlier pled guilty to two charges of being involved in serious organised crime as well as another under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The High Court in Glasgow heard the gang was snared after a large-scale police probe in 2021.
No stranger to the criminal underbelly Rea’s gangland connections previously saw him targeted by IRA hitmen.
In 2012, just weeks after major drugs and money laundering charges against Rea and his twin brother Carlo were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
But detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland passed intelligence to Strathclyde Police that the self-styled property mogul had become the target of a murder plot.
Rea was issued a formal “threat to life” notice, known as an Osman warning, after an alleged Real IRA-linked gang had dispatched an assassin from Northern Ireland to Scotland.
It was claimed the gang, linked to jailed tobacco smuggler Aidan Grew, believed Rea had duped them over a tobacco deal.
MI5 officers believe Grew is a senior member of the Real IRA, who carried out the 1998 Omagh bombing which killed 29 people.
PSNI insider said: “The gang believe Rea duped them over a tobacco deal. The threat was taken very seriously.”
Another source in Northern Ireland said: “A hitman from Crossmaglen in County Armagh was sent to look at his house in Bothwell. They were either going to shoot him or throw a grenade in.”
At the time, sources claimed a suspected hitman had travelled from Crossmaglen in County Armagh to carry out reconnaissance on Rea’s home in Bothwell, South Lanarkshire.
It was alleged the plan was either to shoot him or launch a grenade attack on the property.
The intelligence emerged amid wider fears for Rea’s safety after he was also reported to have narrowly escaped an attempted attack by rivals linked to Glasgow’s Lyons crime clan.
The Rea twins were blamed for battering crime clan member Eddie Lyons Jr at a party in Coatbridge.
He was trailed by two hitmen before screeching away in a 4×4 to escape the thugs.
The death threats emerged after Mario, his twin Carlo and their associates faced a major probe by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.
Mario, Carlo Rea and several associates had faced allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering after being arrested in 2008.
However, prosecutors abandoned the case before trial, citing insufficient evidence.
Away from the criminal investigation, Mario Rea was also handed a seven-year ban from serving as a company director after failing to account for more than £1.3 million that passed through the accounts of a property development company he ran with his brother.
Investigators had also examined the brothers’ extensive property interests across Lanarkshire and their links to several ambitious housing developments.
More than a decade later, Rea returned to court — this time admitting his role in one of Scotland’s highest-profile organised crime investigations.
Last week, Lord Arthurson sentenced him to six years in prison after he pleaded guilty to two charges of involvement in serious organised crime and an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The prosecution said Operation Gadget exposed how O’Hara continued to direct an “industrial scale” drugs empire from prison using illicit mobile phones.
O’Hara was serving a life sentence at the time having been convicted in 2005 for the murder of Paul McDowall in Glasgow‘s Possilpark.
Rea was found to have played a central role on the outside, helping manage criminal finances, arranging luxury homes for O’Hara’s family and handling almost £80,000 in criminal money through his bank account.
The court heard Rea also exchanged messages relating to drug deals and was linked to wider trafficking involving more than £2 million worth of cocaine, heroin and cannabis uncovered during a separate investigation.
Passing sentence, Lord Arthurson accepted Rea claimed he felt unable to leave the crime group but said he had nevertheless willingly assisted an organised crime network.
He told Rea: “You acted for an organised crime group assisting the principal… you facilitated the lifestyles of family members of him.”
The judge added that Rea had been involved in drug trafficking on an “industrial scale”.
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