Drug dealer died from gunshot wounds, inquest hears

A well-known Dublin criminal died last year as a result of complications from gunshot wounds he suffered in an attack in a hotel car park six weeks earlier, an inquest has heard.

A brief hearing at Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard Gary Carey (41), a father of three from Islandbridge in Dublin, was pronounced dead at St James’s Hospital in Dublin on August 5th, 2022.

Mr Carey, who was nicknamed The Canary, suffered fatal gunshot wounds when he was ambushed by a gunman in the underground car park of the Hilton Hotel in Kilmainham shortly before midday on June 24th, 2022.

It is understood he had gone to the hotel located on South Circular Road to use its gym.

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The opening of the inquest into Mr Carey’s death on Wednesday heard his partner, Nicola Donnan, and his mother, Noeleen, were at his bedside in the hospital’s intensive care unit when he passed away at 1.30pm on August 5th last.

Ms Donnan wiped tears from her eyes as she gave evidence of formally identifying her late partner’s body.

Coroner Clare Keane said postmortem results on the deceased’s body showed he had died as a result of “complications of gunshot wounds”.

Det Insp Catriona Joyce applied for an adjournment of the full inquest under the Coroners Act on the basis that Mr Carey’s murder is still the subject of “a live, active investigation”.

Dr Keane granted the application and adjourned the case for mention to a date in December.

Last month, gardaí arrested four individuals – two males and two females – as part of their investigations into the fatal shooting of Mr Carey.

One of the females, who was a close associate of the deceased, was arrested on suspicion of leaking details of his movements to the gang who killed him.

A fifth individual, who was being held in Mountjoy Prison for an unrelated offence, was arrested and questioned in relation to Mr Carey’s murder a short time later.

The fatal attack on Mr Carey at the Hilton Hotel last August was the third time the victim was shot within 15 months.

In March 2021, he escaped serious injury when a bullet grazed his head in an incident in Ballyfermot.

Eight months later, Mr Carey was lucky to survive after he was shot outside a house in Ballyfermot Crescent in the west Dublin suburb.

Gardaí believe that the deceased had become involved in rows with a number of rival gangs over the drug trade in the capital.

They include the criminal gangs headed by exiled gangland leader, Brian Rattigan, and a rival group fronted by Derek “Dee Dee” O’Driscoll.

Mr Carey had returned to Dublin just weeks before his death after being based in Spain for a number of months.