The businessman, the publican and the brains: net closes in on Limerick’s crime bosses

THE arrests of a top Limerick crime boss in London and publican Jim O’Brien in Brussels have turned up the heat on the city’s criminal underworld; and the screw tightened further when hired killer James Cahill offered to grass on several top criminals in return for protection for him and his family.

With two of the main players involved in importing drugs into the mid-west now in custody, a third member of the powerful criminal triumvirate, a West Clare businessman, has plenty of reasons to worry about his liberty as he fears he may be implicated in the Brian Fitzgerald murder.

Hired killer James Martin Cahill, who was jailed for life last week for the murder of nightclub security man Fitzgerald, told the court he is prepared to give evidence about the gang, who paid him €10,000 to carry out the murder.