Murdered criminal Mickey Devoy told cops name of gang boss who wanted him dead.
GANGLAND gun victim Michael ‘Mickey’ Devoy told gardai the name of the crime boss who was gunning for him — just days before he was murdered, The Star has learned.
Sources said detectives visited Devoy in his cell at the top-security Portlaoise Prison early last week to warn him of an imminent threat to his life — that they believed to be credible.
But Devoy, shot dead late on Saturday night in Tallaght, south Dublin, told gardai that he not only knew about the threat — but named the man who was behind it.
Sources revealed that he named a key associate of a man whom Devoy (42), from Ballymun, north Dublin, was blamed for almost killing when that man was shot in north central Dublin last year.
That associate, who is in his 50s, is a well-known drug dealer from the city and is regarded as a major criminal by gardai.
Twist
Gardai believe he ordered the murder in revenge for the botched hit — because he blamed Devoy for it.
But, in a shock twist, sources told The Star that gardai now don’t believe Devoy was involved in the original hit.
A source said: “Two detectives went to the prison last week to give Devoy a formal warning that he was under death threat.
“They told him that they had information that the threat was credible and that they judged that an attack on him was imminent.
michael devoy TARGET: Criminal Michael ‘Mickey’ Devoy (pic from Courtpix) “But he turned to the gardai and told them he was well aware of the threat. And he told them that he knew [the gangster] who was behind the threat and wanted him dead. It was no surprise to him and he knew all about it.”
Victim Devoy, who had over 60 convictions, was only released from Portlaoise Prison on Friday.
He had been jailed on warrants a few weeks earlier after gardai became concerned for his safety.
Victory
But he took a legal challenge to the detention — and won, being released on Friday night. However, that hollow victory meant he only had around 24 hours to live.
Devoy’s body was discovered off the Foxhill Road in Bohernabreena, Tallaght, at around 10.45pm on Saturday night after detectives from Tallaght Garda Station came upon the scene while on a patrol.
The officers had initially stopped to investigate a car parked suspiciously — but as they arrived alongside it, two men jumped into the vehicle and sped away.
Devoy had been shot several times in the head and neck in a brutal slaying.
He spent most of his adult life in prison for a string of violent offences, including a four-year stretch for threatening to kill a man and gouge his eyes out.
Devoy was also prime suspect for the 2005 murder of criminal Mark Byrne — who was shot moments after he left Mountjoy Prison.
Gardai are focusing their probe on a freelance hitman from the border counties who previously worked for Eamonn ‘The Don’ Dunne — himself gunned down in April 2010.
The criminal, who was formerly associated with dissident republicans, branched off into mainstream crime in the middle of the Noughties.
He was close to Dunne’s then boss, Martin ‘Marlo’ Hyland (39), and acted as one of his enforcers.
But when Dunne had Hyland murdered in Finglas, north Dublin, and took over his empire in December 2006, the hitman quickly aligned himself to the new boss.
Bomb
He became one of Dunne’s key henchmen, but when the Don was gunned down by his own gang in Cabra, north Dublin, in April 2010, he branched out on his own.
Sources say gardai arrested the hitman close to Devoy’s home around two weeks ago — and that he was staking out the property for a hit.
Officers also believe he was the man who placed a sophisticated pipe bomb under a car near Devoy’s home last week in another murder attempt.
Devoy, who had more than 60 criminal convictions, only survived that attack because gardai had jailed him days earlier.
The Star revealed on Monday that a gang calling itself the United Criminal Alliance claimed responsibility for the murder of Devoy on Sunday.
