Murdered man’s family arrives in Algarve to bring body home

THE family of murdered Irishman Michael ‘Danser’ Ahern is expected to bring his body home from Portugal in the coming week.

Members of the family are believed to have arrived yesterday in the Algarve to fulfil legal arrangements for the transfer of the remains.

Ahern’s former partner, Eileen O’Donovan, and their two teenage sons, Daniel and Stephen, are thought to be among the group.

It is not known if Ahern’s mother, Lillian, travelled.

They are expected to meet senior officers from the Portuguese police as well as government officials involved in arranging the transfer of the body.

The meetings are due to take place over the weekend and could continue into next week.

Police officers will explain the circumstances of Ahern’s murder by an Irish gang and their subsequent investigation.

The 38-year-old Cork man was brutally beaten and shot last Thursday week.

His badly disfigured body was found inside a large freezer in an apartment in the tourist resort of Albufeira the same day.

He had been shot four times into the right side of the skull at close range.

Police in Portimao, who are investigating the crime, believe he was killed after he siphoned off a quantity of cocaine from a large drugs shipment and refused to hand it back to the gang.

It is understood that the head of the trafficking gang, from Dublin, ordered his death.

The gang boss, aged in his early 50s, had only recently returned from Portugal to Ireland.

Five people - four Irish and one British - were arrested and are being held in custody pending a full investigation.

Police have named them as Brian Murphy, aged 40, from Coolock, north Dublin and Cork men Alan O’Sullivan, aged 27, from Douglas Road; Kevin McMullen, aged 27, from Blackrock Road and Brad Curtis, aged 30, from Passage West.

The fifth is David Feguaer, a Portuguese man with a British passport.

Portuguese police said they did not need to keep the body for investigation purposes and that the family was “completely free” to bring the remains home.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said they did not “anticipate any serious delays” in returning the body.

He said the consular section of the embassy in Lisbon was providing the family with information and assistance in dealing with transport arrangements and administrative requirements.