Algarve murder suspect fears for own life

THE sole foreign member of an Irish gang suspected of murdering a Cork drug dealer in Portugal and dumping his body in a fridge has told police he will end up like the deceased if he gives evidence against the other members.

The man, who is from Portugal but carries a British passport, was arrested with four Irishmen last Thursday after police stormed an apartment in the Algarve and discovered the body of a man in a large freezer.

The deceased, later named as Michael "Danser" Ahern, could only be identified from his fingerprints.

He had been shot four times to the right side of his head at point blank range.

He had been kidnapped following a vicious fight with members of the gang last Wednesday night in the town of Lagos.

He was dumped into the boot of an English-registered BMW and brought more than 50kms to an apartment rented by the gang in Albufeira.

The British man, named by police as David Feguaer, is the only person to have said anything to police since his arrest.

But Carlos do Carmo, the police chief investigating the crime, said the man was too scared to implicate the other gang members.

"He said, 'okay, I was in Lagos with Michael. Michael was in the car and okay Michael was in my apartment and there was a fridge there, but I don't speak anything about my colleagues because I don't want to finish my days the same time as Michael'."

Mr do Carmo said the four Irishmen would "not say anything, nothing".

He named the Irishmen as Brian Murphy, 40, from Coolock, north Dublin and Corkmen Alan O'Sullivan, 27, from Douglas Road; Kevin McMullen, 27, from Blackrock Road, and Brad Curtis, 30, from Passage West.

Police suspect Ahern was shot in the apartment in Albufeira, not in Lagos as earlier thought.

A pistol was found in the apartment along with a number of spent cartridges.

The entire apartment had been wiped thoroughly clean.

The bloodstained clothes of the suspects and the deceased were all placed in plastic bags ready to be destroyed.

The five gang members were taken to court last Saturday, where a judge ordered they be held in "preventative custody" pending a full investigation, which could take between eight and 12 months.