Gardaí believe local gang may be behind latest Dublin gun killing
Gardaí are investigating if a gun murder in west Dublin was carried out by a notorious local gang.
The victim, named as David Lynch, 42, also known as David Chen, had limited interactions with gardaí, with only three minor convictions, but he had associations with major drug bosses in the Clondalkin and Co Kildare areas.
He had been suspected of laundering money considered the proceeds of drug trafficking and was hit by the Criminal Assets Bureau in 2012.
He lived at his parents’ home on Foxdene Avenue, in the Ronanstown area of Clondalkin, and was shot in the front garden of the house at around 2pm yesterday.
A van was found burned out nearby on Buirg an Ri Glen beside Lucan Community National School.
What appeared to be a handgun and a silencer, believed to be the murder weapon, was found beside the vehicle.
Gardaí are examining the motive behind the gangland murder and suspect that a notorious local gang may have been behind it.
The boss of this gang has close connections with the Kinahan cartel, but this murder is not being linked to the Kinahan-Hutch feud.
The gang has been linked to numerous murders, including three deaths connected to a feud in the area.
They include two members of a rival gang, murdered within a week of each other in September 2017 and an innocent youth, mistakenly thought to be a leader of the rival gang, in August 2013.
The gang boss took over the outfit after its former head Jason ‘Jay’ O’Carroll was murdered in 2013 by the rival gang in retaliation for the murder of innocent man Dean Johnson, aged 21.
Mr Lynch was also an associate of murdered gangland figure Mark Desmond, who was shot dead at Griffeen Valley Park, Lucan, in December 2016.
It is suspected that Desmond, himself linked to a number of murders, had threatened the gang boss, who in recent years has spent much time abroad, in Spain and the UK.
It is thought that the gang boss ordered the murder of Desmond.
It is not clear why Mr Lynch would have been targeted and whether there is any connection to the Desmond murder or the other feud.
Sources in Clondalkin have said the day-to-day running of the gang is led by a lieutenant of the boss who is from the area.
The gang boss was dramatically arrested at Dublin Airport in 2016 in relation to an attempted Kinahan attack on a Hutch target.
He was questioned and released and in October he was arrested in the UK in relation to an investigation into a major Kinahan cartel drug and gun trafficking operation.
It is the third gangland murder so far this year.
