Dunes search resumes after 'gangland' murder

Gardaí investigating the country’s latest gangland killing will today resume searches of a beach on the Co Meath coast where a man was brutally shot dead.

Aged in his 30s and from the Drogheda area, he was shot several times in the head after a gang pulled him from a car near sand dunes at Mornington.

It is believed the murder is drugs related.

Gardaí said the man was found dead shortly before 4pm yesterday near Tower Road.

The murderers struck as youngsters and dog owners walked along the beach and through the dunes.

A large section of the shoreline will remain sealed off throughout the day as forensic examinations and searches are carried out.

The man’s body was taken to hospital in Drogheda last night and a post-mortem examination will be carried out today in either Dublin or Dundalk.

The murder was the fourth fatal gangland hit this year and follows record levels of gun crime in 2006 which saw 26 killings.

It came as Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell issued a stern warning in the Dáil to organised criminals.

Unveiling his hard-line Criminal Justice Bill, he said measures such as seven day detentions, electronic tagging and tougher drug trafficking sentences are both necessary and proportionate to the threat posed by gangsters.

The Government also said earlier this year that gangland crime posed the most serious threat to state security in decades.