Maven Problem - Failed to Look for File 501

Question

Relatively unfamiliar with Maven. Im trying to set up a shared project in my laptop.

I've heard there's apparently a security issue with the Maven Repo, so, in the pom.xml, I added this to the <repositories>

    <repository>
      <id>central</id>
      <name>Central Repository</name>
      <url>https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2</url> 
      <layout>default</layout>
      <snapshots>
        <enabled>false</enabled> 
      </snapshots>
    </repository>

But, on top of still getting a 501 error, this is what Im seeing:

Failed to look for file: http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/codehaus/mojo/gwt-maven-plugin/2.4.0/gwt-maven-plugin-2.4.0.pom.

Why is it appending to the URL instead of replacing it?

Failure to transfer org.codehaus.mojo:gwt-maven-plugin:pom:2.4.0 from http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2 was cached in the local repository, resolution will not be reattempted until the update interval of central has elapsed or updates are forced. Original error: Could not transfer artifact org.codehaus.mojo:gwt-maven-plugin:pom:2.4.0 from/to central (http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2): Failed to look for file: http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/codehaus/mojo/gwt-maven-plugin/2.4.0/gwt-maven-plugin-2.4.0.pom.

And this is the follow-up message.