The Special Criminal Court has been given an even greater insight into the inner workings of criminal cells operating within the Kinahan cartel.

Evidence relating to how much it spends on a gangland hit was revealed to the non-jury court today at the sentence hearing of three of its associates.

They'll be sentenced next month for assisting in a plot to murder Patsy Hutch in 2018 - a plot that was ultimately foiled by Gardaí.

The judges were told the Kinahan cartel was led by Irish people operating outside the jurisdiction, and that sub-cells were used to carry out various tasks - in this case, murder.

Members of this cell were secretly recorded talking about how the cartel had so much money, and how much they were paying people.

‘€20k for just setting somebody up. That used to be the price for actually doing the hit,’ the court heard.

The logistics alone was said to be over €10k.

Reporting from Frank Greaney