Daly murder was unplanned, say gardaí

GARDAÍ suspect the plan to murder gangland figure John Daly swung into action only after he arrived in Finglas, north Dublin, in a taxi.

Senior officers don’t believe the murder was planned or that someone tipped the killers off in advance that Daly was en route to Finglas.

Daly, 27, was shot at least five times when the taxi he and five others were in stopped on Cloonara Drive just before 2am last Monday.

He was returning home after spending a night socialising in Dublin city with two friends and three women they met in a nightclub.

“The taxi had stopped in about four places in Finglas. He and his friends knocked on several doors looking for a party,” said a senior garda source.

“People knew he was in the area, so it wasn’t the case that the killer was tipped off by people who knew he was heading to Finglas in a taxi.”

Gardaí are trying to establish which houses the taxi called to and whether the inhabitants had any criminal associations or contacted other people.

After Daly arrived in Finglas, his killers were able to follow the taxi, organise a getaway vehicle, get a gun and decide who would murder Daly, which gardaí believe points to local criminals, rather than other enemies Daly had.

He had created a long list of enemies in prison, particularly after his mobile phone call from his Portlaoise Prison cell to the Joe Duffy radio show last May. Gardaí said, on his release last August, that he was a marked man.

Top of the list of suspects is a local criminal in Finglas, who has largely taken over a drugs empire left behind by Martin “Marlo” Hyland, who was murdered last November by members of his own gang.

This man was a senior lieutenant in Hyland’s gang and has been arrested in relation to the murder.

It’s suspected the criminal may have decided to kill Daly because he was suspected of trying to resurrect his previous trade in cocaine trafficking in the area.