Man who fled murder scene arrested

GARDAÍ have arrested a man who escaped from the scene of a gangland murder in Dublin.

The 32-year-old man being detained was believed to be the driver of a black Ford Mondeo which was sprayed with bullets outside the Yacht pub on the Clontarf Road earlier this week.

He managed to escape by running to a nearby house but his passenger, Noel Roche, 27, was killed.

Superintendent Nicholas Conneely confirmed the man was arrested in Dublin city centre, and dismissed reports he had surrendered himself to gardaí.

The murder of Mr Roche was believed to be a reprisal for the shooting of two men in the Firhouse area of the city last Sunday. His brother John was shot dead in Kilmainham last March as part of a feud between two gangs that has now claimed eight lives.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Michael McDowell yesterday said he was wrong last year to liken gangland crime to “a dying wasp”.

He yesterday announced an extension of a special garda operation targeting organised crime beyond Dublin. But he said he was withdrawing a remark he made in 2004 about the decline of gangland crimes.

Then he said: “The gangland subculture that existed has been hugely broken up. I don’t believe there is new energy at all, I believe this is, to some extent, the sting of the dying wasp.”

Yesterday, he withdrew the remark as “overly optimistic”. His change of heart followed a bloody week in Dublin with the murder of three men.