Kinahan mob took out Zambra as favour to Mitchell.
Gardai investigating the murder of Christopher ‘Git’ Zambra believe that he may have been killed by the Christy Kinahan gang on behalf of George ‘the Penguin’ Mitchell.
The Sunday World can reveal that reclusive drugs lord Mitchell is in the frame for 39-year-old Zambra’s assassination in revenge for the dead man ordering the murder of his relation John ‘Champagne’ Carroll.
Although Git Zambra was cleared of the murder of Carroll, who was shot dead in a pub in the coombe in Dublin in February 2009, there is little doubt Zambra organised the slaying because he did not want to pay Carroll money he owed him for drugs.
Zambra made a lot of enemies because of his alleged involvement in five gangland murders. However, by setting up the murder of John Carroll he annoyed Moroccan-based Mitchell, who was related to the dead man.
Mitchell was a cousin of Carroll and is known to have been furious about the way he was shot dead simply because he went looking for a legitimate debt.
Gardai are convinced that the Kinahan mob actually planned the murder and franchised a Dundalk-based assassin who has been linked to three gangland murders in less than two years. The former Provo is described as being “ice cold” with a gun and gardai say Zambra’s murder was “highly professional”.
Zambra arrived at his sister’s house on Cooley Road in Drimnagh, Dublin, last Sunday afternoon and his Audi was blocked in by a Ford Focus and Nissan Qashqai.
A gunman wearing a ski mask opened fire and struck Zambra several times. He escaped through the passenger side of the Audi and ran up the road four houses away from where he was parked.
He was struck by a bullet in the back. While he lay in the garden, two shots were fired into his face. He was shot a total of six times – four bullets in the back and two to the face.
As Zambra ran up the street, the Qashqai drove after him and a second gun was passed to the ski-masked assassin. The two guns were used in the slaying. The Glock 9mm and Smith and Wesson .38 were found in the Qashqai that was burnt-out a short distance away on Benmadigan Road.
Gardai are aware of the potential George Mitchell (pictured above) link to Zambra’s murder, but also have information that the dead man was involved in several heated rows recently with Paul Rice, Kinahan’s enforcer in Dublin.
Christy Kinahan and George Mitchell are old friends and still cooperate in drug dealing. The Penguin lives in a fortified estate in Morocco and has not been seen in public for more than a decade.
Gardai have no doubt that Kinahan would have been more than happy to arrange Zambra’s murder at Mitchell’s request and certainly has the means to do it. His gang has drawn up a gangland hit list, murdering four people so far this year.
Zambra was a cocaine dealer who was involved in a business relationship with a ‘Mr Big’ from the northside Dublin suburb of Clontarf, who was responsible for the murder of Real IRA boss Alan Ryan in September 2012.
The pair were described as being ‘thick as thieves’ and the possibility that the Real IRA could have been involved in the murder in revenge for Ryan has not been dismissed either, although it is thought unlikely.
The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) was in the process of seizing Zambra’s house and it is known that he had money problems.
He was a notorious ladies’ man and was caught in bed with the long-term partner of a notorious jailed murderer four years ago. The killer was known to be outraged over this but his lover has since moved on to another man, so this row had petered out.
Zambra has been linked to at least five gangland assassinations. He was an organiser of killings and was never a trigger-man himself.
Gardai believe he planned the double murder of car dealer Brian Downes and his innocent employee Eddie Ward in Walkinstown, west Dublin, in October 2007. The duo were murdered in a row over the laundering of money.
The following month, Downes’s business partner and best friend Sean McMahon was gunned down in Tallaght. Zambra is also thought to have been responsible for killing John Berney in December 2012.
The career criminal was himself a suspect in two gangland murders and was shot dead over vague suspicions that he had been having an affair with an ex-girlfriend of Zambra’s.
Zambra was aware that his life was under threat and routinely wore a bullet-proof vest when he was in areas he was not familiar with. He was not wearing one when he was killed, which has led gardai to suspect he may have been set up.
His car was new and he was not regularly seen driving it, so he was unlikely to have been under surveillance for a long period of time.
