A NOTORIOUS Irish ganglord who was the main suspect in the murder of a man and his pregnant partner whose bodies were never found has reportedly died at the Grange Hospital.

According to Irish media, drug lord Cornelius Price was in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board hospital near Cwmbran when he passed away a week last Sunday, having been in a coma since late 2021 as a result of limbic encephalitis.

Reports said Gardai suspected Price, 41, of being directly behind the murder of Willie Maughan, 34, and his pregnant partner Ana Varslavane, 21, on April 14, 2015, after allegedly ordering their deaths because they knew too much about another gang murder.

They were last seen at Price’s heavily fortified compound in Gormanstown, County Meath, and police believe they were killed and cremated there, with detectives saying the gangster boasted about the couple’s murder and claimed their bodies would never be found.

A Garda detective inspector has said in a sworn court affidavit: “It is my belief that members of the Price-Maguire [organised crime group] carried out the double murder.

“Both William and Anastasija were last seen alive at a property belonging to Mr Price.”

Irish police believe he was also behind at least two other killings, with a video showing him toasting the murder of a man in Belfast in 2020 with a glass of Captain Morgan rum.

Price and his gang have more recently been implicated in what Irish media have dubbed the ‘Drogheda feud’ - a gangland conflict over drugs, which has seen a wave of violence and bloodshed, including murders.

He was released from a three-year prison term in 2019 after driving a car at an Irish police officer, and later fled to the UK.

Last month, Darren McClean - an associate of Price - was convicted of two charges of conspiracy to blackmail and one of conspiracy to falsely imprison two brothers in Cambridgeshire after a two month trial at Wood Green Crown Court in London.

Price had also been charged with conspiring to falsely imprison and blackmail the two brothers in July 2020 but his trial was adjourned indefinitely due to his ill health.

According to Liverpool-based evangelist preacher Rev Alex Johnson, he held Price’s hand as he passed away in his Grange Hospital bed on Sunday, February 19.

The Sunday World reported that Rev Johnson said he had been contacted by the family to come and pray with Price and had ‘led him to Jesus’.

The paper stated: “He said around 19 family members prayed with him in the hospital foyer and “gave their lives to Jesus”.

Rev Jackson claimed that as a result of Price’s death: “They (his relatives) are shedding tears not of grief but of joy of how God has brought this huge family together.”