Gardaí suspect drug dealer shot woman after threat by dissidents
DETECTIVES are investigating if the attempted murder of a young mother was carried out by a local drug dealer who was under threat from dissident republicans.
The victim, who is the sister of a Real IRA killer, is not suspected of involvement in dissident republicanism or criminality herself.
She was last night clinging to life after being shot in the chest and arm at her home in Bluebell, south west Dublin.
The shooting happened at the Bernard Curtis House flat complex on Saturday afternoon while the woman’s young daughter was also inside the property.
A number of other people were also in the property at the time, including three men from Northern Ireland with suspected dissident republican links.
One of the men is the son of a senior IRA figure from Belfast.
Detectives are investigating if a local drug dealer, aged in his 30s and also injured during the shooting, was the gunman who kicked in the front door before letting off five shots over the weekend.
A source told the Irish Independent: “One line of inquiry is that the three men from Northern Ireland were brought down to threaten this drug dealer.
“A short time later a man burst into her house and fired five shots, hitting her twice in the chest as well as shooting himself.
“Her young daughter is not even 10 years old and was in hysterics while paramedics were treating her mother at the scene.
“It is being investigated if the gunman was the drug dealer who had been threatened by the dissidents earlier in the day.”
Emergency services were alerted to the shooting and rushed the young woman to hospital, where she remained in a critical condition last night.
The suspected gunman was also driven to hospital by an associate from the south inner-city who has also been arrested as part of the inquiry.
Local gardaí are investigating the attempted murder, while counter-terror detectives are probing the presence of the three IRA associates in Dublin.
They are not suspected of involvement in the gun attack and were in the kitchen when the shooting began, before calling 999.
A number of raids were carried out in the Bluebell area on Saturday night but gardaí have not yet recovered the weapon used.
The local drug dealer also remains in a serious condition in hospital and gardaí have been posted outside his room.
They are expected to question him once his condition improves.
They are likely to question him on suspicion of ordering a gun and then using it in an attempted murder.
The young mother is the sister of a Real IRA killer who is currently serving a life sentence after he pleaded guilty to the murder of a senior gangland figure.
In total, four people aged in their 20s and 30s were arrested in relation to Saturday’s shooting.
They were brought to different stations in the capital.
Three of the men from Northern Ireland have since been released by gardaí without charge, while the south inner-city man was still being questioned.
A Garda spokesman said investigating detectives at Kevin Street garda station are appealing for anyone with information about the incident to contact them.