Did notorious drug dealer kill Trevor?
Informer linked to top crime family comes forward
Criminal’s associate ‘acting on conscience’
TREVOR Deely may have been shot dead by a well-known drug dealer from a notorious Dublin crime family, gardaí now suspect.
The latest information comes from a criminal associate of the gangster, the Irish Daily Mail understands.
It was these revelations that led to this weekend’s search for the missing young man’s body in woodlands outside the city.
Bank of Ireland employee Mr Deely was just 22 years old when he went missing almost 17 years ago, on Haddington Road in Dublin city. He was on his way home from his office Christmas party.
The man being linked to his killing is a serious criminal who has lost a number of family members to drug addiction and crime. His family, from the Crumlin area, were ‘well known – infamous really’ at the time of Mr Deely’s disappearance, sources have revealed. But they are no longer ‘serious players’ in the drugs trade.
A source said: ‘This is a family blighted and destroyed by drugs. Their fortunes have changed hugely.’
While gardaí are investigating claims that young Mr Deely was shot dead and his killer is still alive, the source stressed: ‘He is not yet a suspect – no-one is, when there is no body.’
However, it is known that the criminal and his associates were active in the south inner-city Dublin area where Mr Deely was last seen.
The criminal’s family and another Crumlin family were running a prostitution racket, and exactly 18 months before Mr Deely disappeared, Sinéad Kelly, a 21-year-old prostitute, was stabbed to death on the banks of the Grand Canal off Baggot Street, close to where Mr Deely was last recorded on CCTV.
The ‘criminal associate’ came forward to gardaí recently and said Mr Deely was murdered after a row on the street that turned violent. The informer said he was ‘acting on conscience’ and told them the body was buried in the Chapelizod woodlands that gardaí have been searching over the weekend. However, he said he was not present when Mr Deely was murdered or buried, but was told about it by the criminal.
Sources say they can’t yet say if the information is legitimate but they ‘must follow every lead’.
The search, which started on Saturday and continued yesterday, was on three acres of land owned by South Dublin Council, opposite the R112, running down to the river Liffey. The woods were sealed off on Saturday morning and last night gardaí said the search, which included sniffer dogs, could last weeks.
They expected to resume at six o’clock this morning when digging, led by a forensic archaeologist, would start at the site.
Mr Deely went missing on December 8, 2000, and last December, gardaí started a coldcase review of the disappearance. They re-interviewed witnesses and examined all the evidence again, including the CCTV footage from the area.
In April this year, enhanced video footage showing Mr Deely’s last recorded movements was released to help jog people’s memories. It appeared to show Mr Deely being followed by an unidentifiable man.
A reward of €100,000 was put forward by an anonymous donor at the time, for anyone with information on Mr Deely’s whereabouts. Gardaí have appealed to anyone with information to contact Pearse Street Garda Station or the Garda Confidential Line.
The Deely family, from Naas, Co. Kildare, who have been desperately searching for answers about Mr Deely’s disappearance for 16 years, have appealed for privacy. ali.bracken@dailymail.ie