An Irish drug dealer in Western Australia has been murdered. "Irish Joe" Flanagan was found on Saturday in a shallow grave in a forest near Collie, 200 kilometres south of Perth, Western Australia.
The body of 35 year-old Joseph Paul Flanagan, a carpenter by trade, but underworld figure by occupation, was discovered following the questioning of 50 people by police and execution of two search warrants on Friday.
Two people will appear in a West Australian court today on charges of causing grievous bodily harm. The charges could be upgraded to murder after an autopsy.
Yesterday Australian police were refusing to reveal any further information about Mr Flanagan or how he died, pending the autopsy results and further investigations.
However, police sources said Mr Flanagan was well known in Perth as a distributor of crystal-meth, nicknamed "ice", an addictive amphetamine popular amongst motorcycle groups and on the club scene.
He apparently operated his business from his small flat in Perth, where a workshop for cutting and packing the drugs into street deals had been installed in the roof. He also sidelined as a collector of illegal debts.
Mr Flanagan once boasted to a neighbour that he had been taught about weapons by "the second best army in the world - the IRA". He had been living in Western Australia for most of the 1990s. Acquaintances told local media that Mr Flanagan had recently become paranoid about security and had installed a sophisticated surveillance system in his flat.