Gardai on high-alert over fears hitman paid to avenge Michael Devoy murder.
Gardai are on high-alert over fears that a hitman is preparing to avenge the murder of Michael Devoy who was shot dead last weekend on the orders of Christy Kinahan’s mob.
The Sunday World exclusively revealed that a former Provo assassin from Dundalk had agreed to whack 42-year-old Devoy, who was blamed for a failed murder bid on drug dealer Greg Lynch last October.
The 40 year-old was paid €20,000 by associates of Lynch and told not to rest until Devoy was dead.
Mickey Devoy survived two murder bids on January 7 and 10 but his luck finally ran out late last Saturday night when he was lured to a meeting before being tortured and shot in the head three times. His body was then dumped on a country road near Tallaght.
Devoy had been warned that his life was in danger and had secured the services of his own hitman before he was murdered.
Gardai do not know whether he had actually paid the shooter before he was shot dead but are taking no chances because he was well connected and had the contacts to lash back against Lynch.
The ERU has been ordered to continue patrolling around the streets of both Ballymun and the south-inner city where Lynch and his drug dealing cronies are based.
Detectives do know that a close friend of Devoy, who was also recently warned his life was under threat because of the failed Lynch murder bid, is telling friends that Devoy’s murder will not go unpunished.
However sources say they are not convinced that the Ballymun man has the capability of going up against the biggest gang in the country.
Nevertheless they are taking no chances and have intelligence that the Kinahan gang is planning more murders following an AGM of the mob last week after the death of one of their members.
Several senior gang members met at a pub in Crumlin last Thursday following the death of Eddie McLoughlin.
Among those collated by gardai at the Kinahan gang sit-down included Gerard ‘Hatchet. Kavanagh, Paul Rice, Gerard ‘Bra’ Brady, Greg Lynch, brothers Liam and David Byrne, and their father James ‘Jaws’ Byrne.
All the men are regarded as serious criminals and all have links to Christy Kinahan’s gang. They spent the afternoon and evening drinking at the pub are believed to have discussed gang business.
Top of the agenda is understood to have been all outstanding debts owed to the Kinahan mob.
The collapse of the economy five years ago really affected the cocaine market which led to scores of small and medium sized dealers being unable to pay what they owed.
The gang has ruthlessly been extracting money from drug dealers and the Sunday World has previously revealed how failed car dealer and money launderer Lee Cullen and drug dealer Christopher ‘Git’ Russell fell foul of the mob.
Kinahan is understood to have issued an order that his gang should use any and every means necessary to get what they are owed.
It is also feared that discussions took place about “sorting out” witnesses in several high-profile trials that are due to begin soon.
The identity of the witness and the trials that gardai believe the Kinahan mob is attempting to scupper cannot be revealed but it is understood several individuals have been informed about threats to their lives and given personal protection advice.
Michael Devoy was a veteran criminal who wass extremely well-known to gardai and had the reputation as a very violent individual.
He was the chief suspect in the murder of 30 year-old Mark Byrne in May 2005. Byrne had just been released from Mountjoy prison and walked out of a shop after buying phone credit when a gunman shot him dead. The murder was later re-created on RTE drama Love/Hate.
The Ballymun man was arrested over the murder and gardai were hopeful there was enough evidence to charge him but the DPP disagreed.
He had well over 70 criminal convictions and had served prison sentences over the last 25 years for making threats to kill, possession of firearms as well as burglary, driving offences and other public order matters.
He associated with several serious criminals from Finglas and Ballymun and a close relation is serving a lengthy jail sentence for a feud related shooting.
28 year-old Greg Lynch was left permanently disfigured after being blasted outside a pub at Hanlon’s Corner last October. He was in a coma for two weeks but discharged himself and his pals have been plotting revenge ever since.
He is the leader of a 60-strong drugs gang that is responsible for armed robberies and tiger kidnappings.
He is one of the main targets of the new anti-gang unit based at Kevin Street Garda Station. Gardai class him as one of the city's biggest drug distributors, despite his relatively young age.
Two years ago an undercover Sunday World team captured Lynch meeting his associates out in the open to avoid being bugged by gardai.
In scenes reminiscent of American TV series ‘The Wire’, he insists on conducting all his business face-to-face - and the paranoid mobster even frisks people for bugs before talking to them. He never talks on the phone or carries a wallet or any form of identification.
