Gardai are investigating possible IRA involvement in the murder of a Dublin criminal shot dead outside his Finglas home two weeks ago. Joseph Foran (38) from Glasanaon Road, Finglas, was shot dead as he sat in a car with his girlfriend outside his house on February 26th.
He was a local drug dealer and described as a violent figure. It is understood there was considerable disquiet about his activities in the Finglas area, particularly by families whose members became addicted to heroin he had supplied.
He was killed by a single .38 bullet fired through the open window of his car. His killer was described by gardai close to the investigation as an "expert" who had probably carried out this type of murder before. Foran was an associate of P.J. Judge, another Finglas drug dealer who was shot dead in a similar fashion as he sat in his car outside a local public house in 1997.
The killing is the first believed to have been carried out by IRA gunmen in Dublin since November 1998 when Gerard Moran (35), a petty criminal and small-time drug dealer, was shot dead in north Dublin. In January last year the IRA attempted to murder Mr Alan Byrne, from the Liberties. Mr Byrne, who was due to give evidence in the case of the killing of a local addict, was shot in the back, and later recovered.
Since the ceasefires began the IRA has also killed as many as a dozen suspected drug dealers in the North. Last week the IRA was reported to have issued warnings to two men in Newry, Co Down, to leave the town or face assassination. The warning alleged the men were involved in drugs.