Seven questioned in connection with Dublin murder

Seven people were being questioned today about the murder of a suspected major drug dealer.

Five men and two women were arrested in a series of operations by detectives investigating the shooting of father-of-three John Carroll in Grumpy Jacks pub in south inner city Dublin.

They are being held at a number of Garda stations across the city under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

Three of the men, from the Crumlin area, were arrested at Dublin Port shortly before 8pm last night.

Detectives knew Carroll as an associate of a number of criminal gangs in the capital involved in drug trafficking, particularly a faction in Crumlin.

The 33-year-old was killed when a gunman wearing a motorcycle helmet burst into the bar, in the Coombe, on Wednesday night, singled out his victim and opened fire a number of times with a handgun.

The attacker made off on a waiting motorbike, along with an accomplice.

There were up to 20 people in the pub at the time of the shooting.

Drugs detectives believed he was behind the large-scale distribution of cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine, shifting as much as hundreds of thousands of euro worth of drugs every month.