Gardai investigate Dublin Murder’s Limerick link

The Irish Examiner is reporting this morning that the McCarthy-Dundon gang are suspected of carrying out the murder of Latvian woman Baiba Saulite(right) who was shot dead in Dublin last Sunday.


Jimmy Woulfe writes in an Examiner exclusive how the major investigation into the murder of the mother of two is starting to veer towards the south-side of Limerick city, towards the notorious McCarthy-Dundon gang.

More from the Examiner,

The Irish Examiner has learned that the McCarthy-Dundon gang may have carried out the murder in return for a contract they put out in Limerick on a member of their rival Keane-Collopy gang earlier this year. Gardaí prevented that murder when they arrested a heavily armed non-national hitman in Limerick who was travelling towards the St Mary’s Park stronghold of the Keane-Collopy gang.

That arrangement was brokered with a Latvian gang leader who has ties to the McCarthy-Dundon gang. The non-national gunman was arrested after a major garda surveillance operation.

He was armed with a gun and gardaí believe he was on his way to murder a member of the Keane-Collopy gang on the orders of his Latvian boss at the request of his McCarthy-Dundon jail mate. Before the Latvian hitman was arrested near Limerick city centre, he met up with members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang in Limerick after he travelled earlier in the day from Dublin. He switched cars in the Ballinacurra Weston area and was given directions about the location of the intended victim’s residence.

A Flashback: Ibrihme Hassan , Matta Chahwan and another member of the McCarthy-Dundon gang were arrested on Edward street picking up a Sphinx semi-automatic pistol to carry out the hit.

Back to the Examiner,

Gardaí believe the Latvian gang leader wanted to have Baiba Saulite murdered and his new McCarthy-Dundon ally agreed to have his gang carry out the murder as a favour for the botched contract in Limerick.

The McCarthy Dundons have already strong long-established links with another international gang, the Yardies in the north of England. The Jamaican expatriate gang have supplied the McCarthy Dundons with a sizeable arsenal of automatic guns which they have used in the ongoing Limerick feud.

A description of the prime suspect in the murder was layed before us in the Independent today,

Gardai are not yet clear whether the gunman was a non-national or a member of a local crime gang that had been hired out to carry out the contract killing. But they are in no doubt about the identity of the organiser, whom they described as a particularly nasty criminal.

"He is evil," one experienced investigator said earlier this week. "One of the most cold blooded and ruthless individuals that we have encountered in a couple of decades."

The mother of two from Latvia, was killed as she stood in the hallway of her home at Holywell Square in Swords on Sunday last.