Daly murder suspect held in prison intimidation probe

Sunday Tribune

Mick McCaffrey, Security Editor
GARDAI investigating a sinister campaign against prison officers at Mountjoy have arrested one of the main suspects in the murder of notorious criminal John Daly.

The Sunday Tribune understands that one of the men believed to have been involved in the murder of the 27-year-old last October was arrested in relation to an incident where bullets were left for four prison officers.

The arrested man, who is in his late 20s, is one of three people who have now been detained on suspicion of threatening four named staff members at the Dublin prison.

A man wearing a scarf to cover his face walked into the visiting reception centre of the jail on 18 February and handed an envelope to a staff member. He quickly left the premises before it was discovered that the envelope contained two bullets, as well as personal details about the staff members. The details included information about where they lived and socialised.

The envelope also contained a letter demanding that two named prisoners be immediately transferred to solitary confinement. One of the prisoners is regarded as being one of the main gangland figures in west Dublin . It is unclear why the letter writer wanted the inmates kept in isolation but gardai believe it was because his associates wanted to have more dominance inside the jail.

The prison staff involved have all been given security advice by gardai, who are treating the threat as serious and extremely sinister.

Three people have now been arrested, one of them a woman. The two males are well known to gardai in west Dublin and have links to a major criminal gang in Finglas.

Both have denied having anything to do with in leaving the bullets but gardai are certain they were involved and say the individual captured in CCTV footage of the incident bears a striking similarity to one of the men.

All three were released without charge and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

John Daly was shot dead in Finglas last October as he returned in a taxi after a night out in the city centre.

The man who is thought to have masterminded the killing was a close associate of dead drugs boss Martin 'Marlo' Hyland, and used one of his associates to carry out the killing.

Daly, an armed robber and drug dealer, came to public prominence last summer after he telephoned the Liveline radio show from the maximum security Portlaoise Prison.

He was murdered just weeks after being released because he was dealing in a rival's drug territory.
March 2, 2008