Gardaí investigating the shooting dead of two men in the Dublin suburb of Firhouse on Sunday night believe the victims may have been lured to their deaths as part of an ongoing gangland feud.
The men, named locally as Gavin Byrne (30), from Firhouse, and Darren Geoghegan (26), from Drimnagh, were known to be involved in a four-year territorial feud between two drugs gangs on the southside of the city.
Six people have so far died in the feud and there have been 30 shootings.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell yesterday rejected any suggestion that gangland killings were "spiralling out of control".
Speaking to journalists, he said that more lives would have been lost if the Garda Síochána had not put a lot of resources into Operation Anvil, which was aimed against criminal gangs.
He said the latest deaths were "not for the want of the gardaí doing their level best to prevent it and supplying huge resources, record resources, to try and stop it from happening".
Sunday night's victims were believed to be in fear of their lives, having been stopped by gardaí earlier this year and found to be wearing bullet-proof vests.
Their deaths bring to 17 the number of gangland killings this year, more than twice the number in 2004. Nine of the killings have been linked to the ongoing feud, which began when two drugs "barons" rowed over money and drug supplies.
Mr McDowell attributed yesterday's deaths to "two groups in particular who are engaged in a battle to control cocaine and other drug supplies in Dublin, and they are willing to use any method whatsoever to bring about superiority over the other". He added that the two groups involved have been under very substantial surveillance.
The victims were shot dead at Carrigwood estate at about 9.40pm on Sunday after parking at the end of a cul-de-sac.
It is understood that their killers were waiting for them and approached their silver Lexus car as soon as it parked, shooting both men in the head before escaping on foot across a nearby green area to a waiting car.
The car, a silver BMW 5 series was discovered burnt out later in a nearby estate, Glenvara Park. The Northern Ireland registered car was thought to have been stolen last week and was discovered to contain a number of firearms when it was searched.
Gardaí sealed off both the crime scene and the area containing the burnt-out car.
The bodies of the men remained in their car until the Garda Technical Bureau and assistant State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis could examine them yesterday morning. They were then removed for a post- mortem.
Supt Declan Cockburn from Tallaght Garda station, who is leading the investigation with Det Insp Séamus Kane, said that after the killers abandoned their car, they probably escaped through a field and over a railing on to the main Ballycullen Road. He said it was not unusual for assailants to abandon a getaway car so close to the scene of the crime.
"We are appealing to witnesses in Carrigwood or Glenvara to contact us with any information they might have at the incident room in Tallaght, 6666056," he said.
Referring to the difficulty in getting people to give evidence against gang-members Mr McDowell pointed out that the Criminal Justice Bill currently going through the Dáil has provisions to deal with that, by accepting statements given to gardaí, even if later resiled from. It also contains provisions to strengthen the existing sentences for drug trafficking and firearms offences.
Labour spokesman on justice, Joe Costello TD said the murders indicated the extent to which criminal gangs have easy access to deadly weapons and their willingness to use them.
"We clearly need a fundamental review of the gardaí's approach to dealing with the gangs and particularly with gun murders," he said.