CIRA vows to execute top criminals

The Continuity IRA has threatened to execute “drug dealers and criminals” if they try to harm members of its organisation.

An emailed statement to the media purporting to be from CIRA, and which was signed off with a code word, referenced a newspaper article published last weekend in which a group calling itself the “United Criminal Alliance” threatened “Limerick republicans”.

The article in the Daily Star said the alliance had claimed responsibility for the murder of the dissident republican Declan Smith, a friend of slain Dublin Real IRA leader Alan Ryan.