Murder of dad is third linked to city gang feud
THE killing of Darragh Nugent is the third gun murder linked to a bitter west Dublin feud that has been simmering for over four years.
The father-of-three is suspected of making threats against his local rivals in recent days just over six months after he was arrested by officers on his way to kill a senior member of the rival gang.
Nugent (36) was gunned down outside his home on Wheatfield Avenue in Clondalkin on Monday night.
The victim was well known to gardaí and detectives believe his killers were lying in wait for him before they pounced at 9.40pm.
“Nugent was mouthing off over the past couple of weeks and is even suspected of trying to enlist other people to get involved in the dispute that he has been involved in,” a source said last night.
“Gardaí believe this was a planned murder and one of the city’s most prolific and active drugs gangs were involved in this. Nugent had let it be known that he was on for whacking these lads and they decided to take him out, simple as that.”
Jail
Nugent was the best friend of gangland criminal James ‘Nellie’ Walsh (31), who is serving a 10-year jail sentence for firearms offences linked to a botched hit on major gangland target Michael Frazer in March 2014.
Gardaí have been investigating whether Nugent has been taking orders from Walsh, who embarked on a bitter feud almost four years ago that has now led to three unsolved murders in the Clondalkin area.
The first murder in this deadly feud was that of innocent Dean Johnson (21) in August 2013. Tragic Mr Johnson was not involved in crime and it quickly emerged the intended target of his murder was Clondalkin hood Walsh, who escaped unharmed in the shocking incident.
Walsh, backed up by Monday night’s murder victim Nugent, became a player in the west Dublin crime scene around five years ago and ended up getting involved in a bitter dispute with a Clondalkin gang with close links to the Kinahan cartel.
As the dispute intensified, the gang attempted to murder Walsh in the early hours of August 24, 2013 at Harelawn Green in Clondalkin.
Mr Johnson, who had been socialising earlier with the intended target, was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity.
Sources revealed this infuriated Walsh, who decided to take revenge on the rival mob.
Within five days, cartel-linked criminal Jason ‘Jay’ Carroll (39) was shot dead at his home at Cherrywood Drive in Clondalkin.
Nugent had served a number of jail sentences and was linked to a number of other serious criminals, including Robbie Ellis (25), who was stabbed to death in Clondalkin in November last year in another unsolved murder in the beleaguered Garda district.