A republican terrorist alliance known as the "new IRA" was behind the murder of a veteran Dublin crime boss, according to security sources.
The killing of 65-year-old Eamon Kelly on Tuesday afternoon is being linked by security sources to a feud between Dublin drug gangs and dissident republicans.
The dissidents targeted Kelly because his gang was apparently involved in the murder of former Real IRA boss Alan Ryan in September.
Kelly, a father of nine, had been warned he was a target of the new IRA, which blamed him for Ryan's death. Kelly escaped a previous murder bid in 2010.
The veteran criminal was gunned down around 4pm on Tuesday in the Clontarf area of north Dublin. In a Garda follow-up operation detectives arrested a man nearby who they believe is heavily involved in dissident republican activity.
The 32-year-old suspect was arrested under section 30 of the Republic's offences against the state act. He was still being held on Tuesday night. While wounded several times, Kelly did not die at the scene and was taken by ambulance to Beaumont hospital. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.
It is understood that Kelly had been under covert Garda surveillance for some time.
