Detectives draw up theories after crime boss’s murder
Zambra, 39, was gunned down in broad daylight in Drimnagh, south Dublin, in what detectives described as a “very professional assassination”.
The killer fired the final shot into the victim’s face as he collapsed in the garden of a house on Cooley Rd at 3pm on May 4.
Zambra was a major drug dealer in Dublin and was suspected of being behind up to four murders, including that of John Carroll in a south inner city pub in 2009.
Detectives based in Crumlin have drawn up five possibilities in terms of motive for the murder.
The first is that Zambra was killed by dissident republicans linked to slain Real IRA leader Alan Ryan. Two of the country’s biggest crime bosses are thought to be behind that murder. One of them was associated with Zambra. Sources said Ryan’s crew had tried to murder this crime boss several times, but had not succeeded.
The second theory is that a foreign-based crime figure, who is related to Carroll, killed Zambra in retaliation. Gardaí said members of this man’s gang were in Dublin at the time.
A third is that a drug trafficker from Tallaght ordered the murder because Zambra had muscled into his territory.
A fourth is that Zambra had a relationship with the former partner of another crime boss, but gardaí are not sure if there is enough evidence to back this up.
A fifth relates to a recent tax demand issued by the Criminal Assets Bureau against Zambra. It is thought some of the bank accounts and funds identified by CAB actually belonged to the crime boss linked to the Ryan murder.
The speculation is that the crime boss murdered Zambra because of that, but again Garda sources said this was something they were investigating further.
The sources said that two shootings in the area this week were unconnected. Two houses were shot at, and in one case, a man received wounds to his head.
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