AN IRISH drug dealer whose remains have been found in an Amsterdam canal had fled Ireland to avoid imprisonment and to escape drug dealers after he was caught with a handgun and drugs.
The body of Keith Ennis (30), with an address at Oak Way, Clondalkin, Dublin, had been dismembered and stuffed into a suitcase which was then thrown into a canal in Amsterdam.
The father of one left for continental Europe after he was arrested in Dublin in October 2007 during the course of a Garda investigation into drugs gangs in Clondalkin and Ballyfermot.
Gardaí recovered almost €20,000 in cash when Ennis was stopped and searched in October 2007. His home in Clondalkin was then searched where gardaí found a loaded 9mm Glock handgun and cocaine valued at €3,000.
Ennis was questioned for a period of time before being brought before Dublin District Court. He secured bail.
After he was questioned gardaí searched premises elsewhere in west Dublin. One man was arrested in a house in Tallaght after €10,000, cocaine and cannabis worth €60,000 were seized.
A house in Clondalkin and a warehouse in Walkinstown were also searched. Four additional firearms and ammunition were seized as well as cocaine valued at an estimated €500,000.
Three men were arrested as part of the Clondalkin and Walkinstown operations.
The narcotics seizure and guns were linked to three major drug dealers based in Ballyfermot, Clondalkin and Kildare. Gardaí believe those drug dealers suspected Ennis of providing information that led officers to their drugs and guns.
Ennis believed his life was in danger and because of this and the criminal charges he was facing he decided to flee Ireland.
While his remains surfaced in Amsterdam earlier this month gardaí suspect the Dubliner spent time in Spain after he fled Ireland.
Gardaí helped Dutch police in identifying the body. DNA testing and Ennis’s distinctive tattoo on his right forearm were used to confirm his identity.
The motive for the murder is unknown and it is unclear if the Dubliner was murdered as part of a local drugs row in Amsterdam or if the killing is linked to Ennis’s activities before he fled Ireland.
The murder is the latest in a series of killings in Europe involving Irish drug dealers.
Paddy Doyle, of Portland Place, Dublin city, was shot dead near Marbella last February. The former leaders of the Dublin Westies gang, Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg, were shot dead in southern Spain in early 2004.
John McKeon, from Finglas, Dublin, has been missing presumed dead in Spain for more than three years. Cork drug dealer Michael “Danser” Ahern was found dead in the freezer of an apartment in Portugal in 2005.
Drug dealer Richard Keogh, Cabra, Dublin, was shot dead near Marbella in Spain last January.