Two alleged members of a Yugoslav drugs gang and a Dutch national have been arrested and remanded in custody, charged in connection with the killing last month in Amsterdam of a Dublin drug-dealer, Mr Derek Dunne.
A statement from the office of the Amsterdam Public Prosecutor said that one of the arrested Yugoslavs had admitted to police that he fired the shots which killed the 33-year-old Irishman.
The 31-year-old Dutch-based man, said to be a member of a Yugoslav crime gang, together with a second man from former Yugoslavia and a Dutch national were arrested in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Delft. One has been charged with murder, while the other two face charges of hostage-taking, extortion and drugs offences.
Further arrests have not been ruled out, Public Prosecutor's Office spokesman Mr Robert Molenbrook said.
An Englishman arrested at the scene of the gun battle early on June 3rd at Mr Dunne's rented home in Amsterdam was remanded in custody for a further month when brought before judges at a closed session yesterday. A fifth suspect, a Dutch national, was so severely wounded that his condition in hospital was still described as critical.
Mr Dunne, a former League of Ireland footballer, was, according to Garda sources, suspected of trafficking at least 50 kg of heroin and 1,000 kg of cannabis into Ireland from his Dutch hideout on a weekly basis.
A joint police and Public Prosecutor's Office press statement has ruled out any personal feud connected to the Irishman's violent death. A statement said that Mr Dunne was targeted because three of his English associates could not pay off their own drugs debts to Yugoslav suppliers and were forced to seek out friends or contacts who would honour the debt on their behalf.
Two of these Englishmen were beaten up and held hostage in the hours before Mr Dunne died, while a third was taken at gunpoint to his home to ask him to hand over the money owed, according to the statement.
The trial of Mr Dunne's alleged killer and accomplices will not be held for a number of months.