Killing sparks fears of bloody gang war

GARDAÍ in Dublin are preparing for bloody retaliation after yesterday’s fatal shooting of a man believed to have had strong connections to the notorious crime gang known as the Westies.

The 24-year-old man died in hospital yesterday afternoon after he was shot at close range in the leg with a double barreled shotgun. The blast severed the main artery in his leg, causing huge blood loss.

The dead man, who was shot on waste ground at the back of the Mulhuddart Inn, was understood to have had been a close crime associate of Bernard Sugg, the 23-year-old kingpin of the Westies who was shot dead by a rival drugs gang last August.

Hard man Sugg, who managed the gang’s heroin operation, was having a drink at his local, the Brookwood Inn in west Dublin, when two gunmen, dressed in black with balaclavas, carried out the assassination.

They fired nine bullets, two of which hit him in the chest.

Similarly, yesterday’s killing had all the hallmarks of a gangland hit.

A youth, who came across the severely injured man on the shortcut to the Wellview housing estate at 4pm, attempted to lift him to the nearby roadway where he collapsed and lost consciousness.

He was taken to Blanchardstown Hospital where he died.

The dead man’s name was not released, but he was well known to gardaí.

Garda sources indicated that he was part of the infamous Westies gang, a group of thugs with a stranglehold on the illegal drugs networks, theft and protection rackets in their West Dublin bailiwick, where some terrified shop owners are said to be paying them 200 a week.

The Westies call themselves after the Irish-American gang which terrorised Hell’s Kitchen, New York, in the 1970s and 1980s. They sprang up in west Dublin about five years ago. They’re all in their 20s and early 30s. As teenagers, they served their time as car thieves and joyriders.

Gardaí have launched a murder investigation and are appealing for help.

Last week, Justice Minister Michael McDowell pledged an additional E2 million for special garda operations by the end of the year to tackle criminal gangs.

Speaking in the Dáil on that occasion, Mr McDowell said: “We in this House should send out a clear message today: No one is beyond the reach of the law, and whatever has to be done to bring offenders to justice will be done.”