Gardaí satisfied criminal is dead in Spain

GARDAÍ yesterday said they had no information to confirm reports that a missing gangster had been chopped up by his killers in Spain.

Garda sources confirmed that rumours were circulating in the criminal underworld that the drug dealer had been disposed of in a grisly fashion.

However, the sources said there was nothing, as of yet, to support those allegations.

“The rumours have mushroomed among criminal sources, but there’s no substance to them as far as we know,” said one senior garda source.

A second source also confirmed that the reports were circulating.

“Criminals are saying this. We are satisfied he’s dead, but as far as chopping up goes, we’re not sure. We have no way of knowing,” the source said.

The drug boss, nicknamed ‘The Mexican’, was reported by garda criminal contacts to have gone missing shortly after Christmas in the Spanish resort of Torrevieja, and was feared dead.

The 49-year-old criminal, from Finglas in north Dublin, had been closely associated with a number of major criminals in Ireland over the last 25 years.

In recent days, criminals have said the drug boss had been chopped up by his killers to ensure his body would never be found.

The killers are reported to have wanted to avoid a repeat of the situation that ensued following the dispatch the crime bosses known as the Westies. Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg went missing three years ago.

Last July, their remains were found under six feet of concrete in the town of Catral, near Torrevieja.

A man was later taken into custody as part of a murder investigation by Spanish police.

A member of The Mexican’s family has reported him missing to gardaí in Finglas.

Garda sources there said they have formally contacted the Spanish authorities and the United Nations police body.

“We have been in liaison with our colleagues in Spain and Interpol. We have to wait and see if they come back with anything,” said one source.

A number of gardaí have pointed out that they still don’t know for sure whether The Mexican’s body was even in Spain, and would not know until he was found.

If the criminal’s death is officially confirmed, he will be the fifth Irish criminal murdered in the Iberian peninsula in the last three years, four of them in Spain and one in Portugal.