Two men regarded as suspects in a number of gangland killings in Ireland face kidnapping-related charges after being arrested in Britain. The men, from counties Limerick and Meath, have been held in prison since last month though news of their detention has only emerged.
One of the men is a leading figured in the Drogheda gangland feud who was also linked to three murders that predate that gun feud. The other man is linked to the McCarthy Dundon gang in Limerick, who had been involved in a murderous feud in that city for over a decade.
Both Irishmen, and others, are under investigation in Britain on suspicion of conspiring to carry out an abduction there. It is alleged they targeted two men for the purposes of demanding money and they were being held in a Staffordshire prison.
One of the men is in his late 30s and has been a driving force of the Drogheda feud for over a year. He left Ireland for Britain in the aftermath of the murder and dismembering of 17-year-old Keane Mulready Woods in Drogheda in January.
At the time he feared his life was in danger from the same side of the Drogheda feud that killed the teenager and then dismembered him and took his remains to Dublin for dumping in different locations on the north side of the city.
Before the Drogheda feud the man in his late 30s had already been heavily involved in drug dealing in the north east and related gun feuding.
He was suspected of involvement in the murder of Benny Whitehouse (35) in Balbriggan in 2014, a drug dealer who was shot dead as he returned to his car after bringing his daughter to her national school.
He has also been linked to the disappearance, presumed murder, of a couple in 2015. Willie Maughan (35) and Latvian national Anastasija (Anna) Varslavane (21) were last seen in Gormanston, Co Meath, on April 14th, 2015. Gardaí believe they were killed because the men who killed Whitehouse feared the couple was intent on supplying information to the Garda about the Whitehouse murder.
The older man in custody in England is also among the suspects for the murder in Belfast in April of Robbie Lawlor (35), who was suspected for the murder and dismembering of Keane Mulready-Woods.
Furthermore, the younger of the two Irishmen in custody in Britain is suspected of helping to set up Lawlor, a gangland criminal, to be murdered at a house on Etna Drive in the Ardoyne. He was among a group of people arrested for questioning after the killing but was released by the PSNI without charge.
The older Irishman in custody in Britain had previously fled Ireland because of threats from a number of people, including Robbie Lawlor who blamed him for the murder of his brother-in-law Richard Carberry in Bettystown, Co Meath, in November, 2019.
