GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING last week’s double gangland murder in Dublin’s north inner city believe they know the identity of the gunman.
Detectives were last night holding five people on suspicion of withholding information on the case.
The three women and two men were arrested in Dublin’s north inner city yesterday morning.
They were all detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
They are being held at the Bridewell, Coolock, Store Street and Mountjoy Garda stations. All five can be held for up to 72 hours without charge.
The five were being questioned on suspicion of withholding information rather than about carrying out the double shooting.
The two men who died were Michael “Roly” Cronin (35), of Ballymun, and James Maloney (26), from Dublin’s south inner city.
They were sitting in the front seats of a car off Summerhill in Dublin last Wednesday week when a man known to them sitting in the back shot them both in the back of the head.
The gunman then escaped on foot. A Magnum 357 revolver was found thrown under a car at nearby Gloucester Diamond. Gardaí believe it was the murder weapon.
Cronin, who was buried yesterday, was a convicted heroin dealer and was a major player in the drugs trade in the inner city and west Dublin. Gardaí believe Cronin, and not Maloney, was the gunman’s target.
Maloney had no criminal convictions but was an associate of Cronin’s.
Detectives are working on the theory that an armed robber and drug dealer from Finglas ordered the shooting.
The man is also suspected of planning the murder two years ago of Martin “Marlo” Hyland and he has now effectively taken over Hyland’s gang.
The gun attack on Hyland also claimed the life of 20-year-old Anthony Campbell. The apprentice plumber was working in the murder house at Scribblestown Park, Finglas, when the killers called to shoot Hyland.
The man who gardaí believe shot Cronin and Maloney last week was not among the five arrested yesterday.
He is a drug dealer and armed robber, and has served two lengthy sentences for crime involving firearms.
Gardaí believe he knew Cronin and Maloney, and that they trusted him to sit in the back of their car to talk about criminal matters.
The suspected murderer was himself the target of a shooting in north Dublin last year but escaped uninjured.
One of those under arrest is associated with criminals who have been involved in a feud in Sheriff Street, Dublin, which has claimed three lives in recent years.
Gardaí believe one of the others under arrest may have aided the killer immediately after the shooting.
This man is known to gardaí and is the son of a middle-aged convicted drug dealer who has served a number of prison sentences for drugs and violent crime. From a suburb of north Dublin, he has been very well known to gardaí for decades.