GARDAÍ ARE continuing their investigation into the gangland murder of two men who were shot in an ambush two years ago, Dublin Coroner’s Court heard.
Michael “Roly” Cronin (34) and James Moloney (26) were shot while they waited in a car at the junction of Summerhill and Langrishe Place in the north inner city at 8.30pm on January 9th, 2009.
It is believed Cronin was chatting to his murderer, who was sitting in the back seat, before that person produced a semi-automatic weapon and fired shots into the heads of both men.
The car they were travelling in rolled across the road, crashing into a steel barrier. The gunman made his escape through a nearby side street.
Cronin died at the scene. Moloney was taken to St James’s Hospital, were he died two days later.
Cronin was a major drug dealer, having served a 13-year jail sentence for possession of heroin, and had previously survived a number of attempts on his life.
Four months before his death, shots were fired at him as he drove in the vicinity of his home in the Hampton Wood estate in Finglas.
Gardaí had foiled a previous attempt on his life in 2009. He was the subject of a Criminal Assets Bureau investigation at the time of his death and three houses were subsequently seized and sold, netting the State about €300,000. Moloney was an associate of Cronin’s but had no known serious criminal involvement.
At the Coroner’s Court, Det Insp Francis Sweeney of Fitzgibbon Street Garda station said the Garda investigation into the double murder was ongoing, and asked for a six-month adjournment on the inquest into both men’s deaths. Coroner Dr Brian Farrell adjourned the matter for mention to June 11th next year.