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.