Patrick Farrell, the drug smuggler shot dead by his girlfriend in Drogheda, Co Louth, earlier this month, was on the verge of a gang war with rival drugs gang when he met his death, it has emerged. Farrell, from Newry in Co Down, is also now understood to have been behind the attempt to smuggle 20 handguns into the country through Dublin Port two months ago.
Police had earlier assumed that the guns, found in Dublin Port by Customs officers on July 25th, were destined for the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in the North.
It is now accepted that Farrell had imported the guns from Holland and was arming his gang for armed confrontation with associates of another Newry drug smuggler.
This man has close connections with the gang responsible for the murder of the journalist, Veronica Guerin, and also former members of the INLA.
According to Garda sources, Farrell had recruited disaffected Official IRA members in Newry who were to help him in his gang confrontation in return for a cut of his drugs money.
Farrell's family and associates have strongly denied that he was a drugs smuggler but gardai insist he was heavily involved in smuggling drugs across the Border.
It is believed Farrell specialised in the cross-Border smuggling of drugs and had links with drug traffickers in Dublin and Co Antrim.
Although he made large amounts of money, Garda sources say he was not one of the biggest drug barons. He had a moderately successful car business in Newry and owned properties in the Border area and a modern apartment in Ballsbridge, Dublin.
He was shot dead on September 10th by his girlfriend, Lorraine Farrell, in the bedroom of her Drogheda house before she killed herself. She had planned the killings carefully. She had bought her grave the previous week and had borrowed the shotgun from a friend on the pretext of selling it on.
Farrell's death appears to have prevented what could have been a bloody feud between the two Border drugs gangs. Sources said the feud had arisen after Farrell had stolen two 100 kg consignments of cannabis in Dundalk belonging to the other gang leader.
The drug is worth between £2,000 and £2,500 a kg wholesale.
It is possible that Farrell felt confident about stealing his rival's drugs because the other man was under pressure from the detectives investigating Ms Guerin's murder.
As a result of the Guerin investigation, the gang responsible for murdering the journalist was broken up.
It was always likely that this would result in smaller drug dealers trying to cut in on what was, until mid-1996, the largest cannabis smuggling operation in this State.
The Newry man who was in conflict with Farrell, although still only in his mid-20s, had built up a sizeable cross-Border drugs trade collecting cannabis for the Dublin-based gang and carrying it into the North where he sold it on, mainly to ex-loyalist paramilitaries. He is a member of a Newry family with long-standing connections with the INLA.