GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING the shooting dead of Dublin’s latest gangland victim believe his killers had him under surveillance or were kept updated by phone as to his location as he moved from pub to pub.
John Carroll, a 33-year-old father of three, was gunned down as he sat drinking in a pub in the city centre on Wednesday night.
The killing was the sixth fatal gangland-style shooting of the year and has prompted serious criticism of the Government’s handling of organised crime.
The Labour Party said successive Fianna Fáil-led governments since 1997 had promised action on tackling gangland crime, but the problem was now worse than ever.
Fine Gael was critical of the decision by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to reduce Garda overtime from €108 million to €80 million.
The victim of Wednesday’s attack had been living at addresses in Kilbarrack and Baldoyle in recent times, but was originally from Charlemont Street in the south inner city. He was drinking with a number of friends in Grumpy Jack’s pub in the Coombe, Dublin, shortly after 9.30pm when two men pulled up outside the premises on a blue motorbike.
The pillion passenger got off the bike and went into the pub. He singled out his victim and discharged a number of shots from a handgun. The victim tried to run but was hit six times in the stomach, hip, buttocks and arm.
The gunman escaped the scene on the waiting motorbike. Both the gunman and his accomplice wore helmets with dark visors pulled down throughout the attack.
Carroll, who worked as a car salesman, was taken by ambulance to St James’s Hospital, where he died shortly after 11pm. He had initially been expected to survive, but is believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest.
The dead man had earlier been drinking in a pub in Rialto before moving to Grumpy Jack’s. Gardaí believe Carroll was being kept under surveillance by his killers or that the gunman and his accomplice were being kept informed as to their target’s movements.
Carroll was known to gardaí for his links to the drugs trade. He was a target of the Garda National Drugs Unit for a number of years.
Gardaí believe he was centrally involved in organising drug smuggling routes from the UK and Europe for gangs operating in Ireland. He was not involved in the sale of drugs once they reached Ireland. One Garda source described him as a “freelance trafficker” who worked for very well-known drugs gangs, mostly in north Dublin, but he was not affiliated to any one gang.
Gardaí believe his murder is drug-related, and are trying to establish whether Carroll was killed by a gang that owed him a large sum of money.
“He was working for a number of gangs at any one time, so there would be plenty of drugs on the move and plenty of money owed,” said one Garda source.
Some of Carroll’s associates are members of a drugs gang that has recently received extortion demands from the INLA in Dublin. However, there is no firm intelligence linking Wednesday’s attack to the INLA extortionists.
Gardaí are studying CCTV images of the attacker entering and leaving Grumpy Jack’s.
Supt Thady Muldoon said a “mid-range” blue motorbike was used by the killers. He said the men wore dark clothing as well as dark helmets and that they escaped towards Dean Street and on to Kevin Street.
He appealed for anybody who was in the pub or general area at the time of the killing to come forward. Anyone with information is asked to contact Kevin Street Garda station on (01) 6669400.
