Gangster John Wilson was gunned down after a €20,000 contract was placed on his head, underworld sources revealed last night.
The hit was placed on him as part of a feud the criminal had with another gangster in west Dublin — and sources last night told The Star that Wilson was killed over that personal row.
The sources also said they expected associates of Wilson — whose two brothers Keith and Eric are serving sentences for gun killings in Ireland and Spain respectively — would soon retaliate for his murder.
“They will strike back,” one source said.
And The Star has also learned that a suspect being interviewed about Friday’s brutal execution of Wilson (35) has only recently been released from prison.
That suspect, who is 37 and who has served a jail sentence for drugs offences, was released from prison on another matter just weeks before Wilson was killed in his home in Ballyfermot, Co Dublin, on Friday afternoon.
He had been a member of a group of criminals calling themselves the Criminal Action Force — who have been involved in a bloody feud with the Real IRA.
Wilson was one of a CAF team that shot up the Players’ Lounge Pub in Dublin’s Fairview in July 2010 — in which three innocent men were injured.
It had originally been thought that Wilson was gunned down by the Real IRA in retaliation for the murder of terror boss Alan Ryan (32) last month.
But sources say gardai are now satisfied that Wilson, of Cloverhill Road, was gunned down as part of a personal feud with another criminal — and the CAF has claimed that he was no longer a member of the organisation.
CAF said: “John Wilson was aligned to a faction that had left CAF more than a year ago.
“We have had no activity with this former faction.
“There will be no retaliation taken by our membership.”
Wilson was killed by a gunman who walked into his house (above) and blasted him at least twice at close range on Friday afternoon.
