‘No evidence’ dissident republicans were behind double murder

SENIOR detectives have said there was no evidence to suggest dissident republicans were behind the double murder of two young cousins this week.

Reports circulated earlier yesterday that a violent Real IRA gang gunned down Glen Murphy and Mark Noonan because they allegedly hadn’t paid a drug tax to the outfit.

The gang, led by brothers, is known to have been levelling drug gangs across Dublin with a tax on their profits from dealing.

But senior officers yesterday said there was no paramilitary link to the murders on Tuesday night.

One Garda source said they had not collected any information to date to suggest a subversive link, while a second garda source said the contention the Real IRA gang was involved was not true.

Gardaí continue to stress they have not yet uncovered any possible motives and are still in the early stages of investigating a range of avenues.

They are examining the personal and relationship histories of the two men and their drug-using backgrounds to see if either reveal possible motives.

Mr Murphy, 20, and Mr Noonan, 23, both from Dublin’s north inner city, were gunned down in what gardaí consider was a “well-executed” and “very organised” hit at a filling station in Finglas, north Dublin, shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

After the shooting, gardaí said the two young men had gone to “make a simple purchase” at the late-night Tesco garage on Finglas Road when a hit team of two armed men and a driver shot them dead.

Gardaí were immediately able to state that neither men had any known associations with gangs or organised crime and that, unlike most gangland shootings, detectives were not able to suggest possible motives or suspects.

Mr Noonan, from O’Devaney Gardens flats complex, had no convictions, while Mr Murphy, from nearby Drumalee estate, had minor convictions for criminal damage and public order.

Garda sources said the duo seemed to be “decent enough” young men. They said that they were trying to determine if they knew or interacted with local criminals in the area.

Sources said they did use drugs, but added that was not unusual in their area. They will investigate if they had built up a drug debt to a dealer, but sources said that initial indications suggested they hadn’t.

Detectives will talk to local drug users and dealers to gather information on this avenue. Another team of detectives is examining the personal background of the two men to see if any issue here may have led to the attack.