DETECTIVES investigating the assassination of top Dublin criminal Martin 'Marlo' Hyland are probing links between a major Tallaght-based crime boss and former members of Hyland's own Finglas gang, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

Hyland and the Tallaght drug dealer were once allies but recently fell out.

The south Dublin criminal controls a drug-trafficking racket across Dublin and a senior garda source has told the Sunday Tribune that, after the pair's split, "it was only a matter of time before one of them killed the other."

Gardai are investigating if Hyland was killed by one of his own cohorts following a recent implosion in his gang's structure, possibly with the support of the Tallaght crime boss.

Over 20 of Hyland's cohorts who are major players in the drugs industry have been arrested and are currently facing lengthy prison sentences.

As a result of these arrests, the senior garda source said, there was also a major falling-out within Hyland's inner circle of criminal cohorts and he had several enemies within his own criminal ranks.

Gardai have already formally interviewed several of Hyland's associates whom they are treating as suspects, but they are having more difficulty in proving the Tallaght criminal's involvement in the brutal slaying.

Despite reports that former INLA operative Dessie 'The Border Fox' O'Hare was involved with Hyland in criminal enterprises and may be a suspect in his killing, the garda source claimed that, while O'Hare may have known Hyland, there was nothing to suggest they were involved in any criminal activity together and there is no evidence that O'Hare was involved in his murder.

Interestingly, Hyland was known to have been connected with a major Dublin criminal connected to the organisation of pub and nightclub security rackets . . . an illegal industry that is often associated with the INLA.

The Sunday Tribune has learned that Hyland owned at least five Dublin properties . . . worth over 3 million . . .

and hid these properties from the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) by buying them in other people's names.

CAB's attempts to freeze Hyland's assets failed as his properties were held in his associates' names, making him untouchable under the technicality that these houses did not fall under CAB's remit.

Hyland, like many criminals across Ireland, bought a number of properties and used them to launder vast amounts of 'dirty' money. However, he was not believed to be among the top level of criminal profiteers in Limerick and Dublin who have pumped as much as 100 million into the financial services markets in Dubai and the Middle East to conceal their drugs cash.

Gardai believe Hyland used his associates to front bogus mortgage applications through rogue financial advisers and mortgage lenders in what is referred to by gardai as 'mortgage application fraud'.

Hyland's entry to the criminal underworld was by no means destined from birth. He was born into a well-respected family who live at the Phibsborough end of Cabra, and was one of seven children, four girls and three boys. His parents, William and Nellie Hyland, were described by one local community worker in Cabra, who spoke to the Sunday Tribune last week, as "decent, good people". The family were devastated at the death of Marlo's sister Julia, who was beaten and strangled to death by her husband Mick Brady in December 1985.

One Cabra local who knew Marlo Hyland in his teens and early 20s described him as a "troublesome but lovable rogue-type young fella". The local said that Hyland's sister's killing "drove Martin mad". Mick Brady admitted the manslaughter of his wife and was jailed for 10 years in July 1987. Brady was released in early 1995, then aged 37. In September 1996, he was shot dead.

No charges were ever brought in the case but as one well-placed former criminal told this newspaper last week, "you didn't have to be a genius to figure out who did it".

It was Marlo's niece, Elaine, who found her uncle's dead body last week at her Scribblestown Park house, and who also found her mother's body at the Bradys' family home in Harelawn Park, Clondalkin.

Around Cabra in the early 1990s, Hyland was known as a minor young criminal who stole cars and was involved in smallscale criminal activity. Hyland was surrounded by a tightly-knit gang drawn mostly from the Cabra area. He was involved in armed robbery and is believed to have invested some of this money in the drugs trade, initially getting involved in bringing in cannabis and heroin from the UK and the continent.

One of the first times he came to public attention was when a republican-backed anti-drugs community group marched against a house he was living in briefly in Cabra in 1994. Shortly afterwards, shots were fired through his window and he made the prudent decision to move to Finglas.

Hyland's big 'opportunity' came when rival factions assassinated a small core of big drug dealers in west Dublin in the mid 1990s, paving the way accidentally for the Cabra man's ascent. PJ Judge, then aged 41, was shot dead on 7 December 1996 as he sat in a car outside a Finglas pub. Judge had a deserved reputation as a brutal criminal and major drug lord. One of his main partners in crime, Joseph Foran, then aged 38, was also shot dead in February 2000. Major dealer Pascal Boland was also killed in late 1999.

Hyland, along with young men who had effectively apprenticed to Judge, Foran and Boland, eventually filled the vacuum in the drugs market. There is, however, some bewilderment in the Finglas and Blanchardstown areas over the media profile ascribed to Martin Hyland as 'the' big underworld figure. Contrary to the impression given during the past week, local sources in west Dublin insist that Marlo Hyland was not the biggest drug boss in the area but was one among around half a dozen underworld figures at the top level.

Seven years ago, Hyland was considerably more active in the drugs business, but around four years ago he seemed to take a step back briefly, perhaps funding the illegal enterprise from behind the scenes after relocating out of the city to Clonee in Co Meath. Either way, he re-emerged as a major player in the past two years and was closely connected to at least four or five other top drug bosses. These include one man in his mid-20s who is facing serious criminal charges in relation to a major drugs seizure in central Dublin early this year.

Among the possible reasons why gardai have lately been so successful in making major drug seizures in west Dublin is the existence of a confidential phoneline, linked to Liverpool, which has recorded over 100 confirmed sightings of drug deals from members of the public. It is notable that many recent seizures involved criminals moving their drugs out of the garda north division's K district . . . where reports to the confidential line are most active . . .

when detectives swooped.

The likelihood of successful prosecutions for Hyland's killing is slim, given a conviction rate of just 17% for gun murders, compared with 60% of all homicides.

Almost half of all unsolved violent deaths are organised crime-related killings.

The origins of inter-gang conflict are, as one experienced detective told the Sunday Tribune last week, "like wheels within wheels. . . what's at the back of things like rows and fallings-out is impossible to figure sometimes."

In the Blanchardstown area just four years ago, for example, one of the top gangs was led by Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg, the so-called Westies.

Hyland worked closely with associates of the gang and, as is almost unique to Irish gangs, conflict between the criminal groups was contained by mutual agreement so that business would not be adversely affected.

It is this co-operation between Dublin gangs . . . which is unparalleled among crime outfits in Spain, Holland or elsewhere on the continent . . . that was singled out for mention in the most recent Europol Organised Crime Report.

Stephen Sugg's brother Bernard was the gang's chief enforcer. He stayed at home after his brother and Coates fled to Spain where they fell foul of several murder attempts. Whether Bernard Sugg planned to follow his brother to the continent is not known. On 17 August 2003, Bernard Sugg sat inside the door of the Brookwood Inn in Corduff in Blanchardstown. It was a familiar haunt for him and other gang members on occasion. A gunman walked into the pub and shot Sugg several times in the chest. The Westies were dealt their final, irrevocable blow.

The chief suspects in the shooting dead of Bernard Sugg were two brothers who had been closely connected to the Westies gang. Andrew 'Madser' Glennon and his brother Mark had known the Westies leaders since they too were in their teens.

The brothers had been a vital part of the gang in the early 2000s but a dispute between the brothers and the gang's leaders led to bad blood. When Coates and Stephen Sugg fled to Spain, the Glennon brothers decided it was prudent to remove the gang's enforcer for good.

Their control over the Westies' former stomping ground in Corduff was shortlived. On 30 April 2005, Andrew Glennon was gunned down at his Clonee home by another rival west Dublin outfit. Less than five months later, on 7 September 2005, his brother Mark was shot dead in Blanchardstown.

Ironically, the Glennons are believed to have been 'removed' by another rival gang led by two brothers in the Blanchardstown area who are now major players in the capital's drugs scene and who have even resorted to using explosives to target their enemies.

"In the context of these two guys, comparing them to Hyland. . . Hyland wasn't even as big within the Dublin 15 area as these two probably, in terms of drugs and violence, " the detective garda said.

As one well-placed community activist told the Sunday Tribune last week: "What happened to [Martin] Hyland, and the Westies and others is what happened a few years earlier to their predecessors. Young guys rise up through the ranks and get greedy; former friends fall out. I can't think of many big drug fellas who don't succumb to that cycle."

Killings with firearms in Dublin since January 2004 map courtesy www. dublincrime. com
blue = male red = female black = multiple homicides

>> Three women have been shot dead in Dublin since 2004, Joan Casey, Donna Cleary and Baiba Saulite, the latter of whom was the only intended victim.

>> The two multiple homicides include last week's killing of Marlo Hyland and apprentice plumber Anthony Campbell.

>> The majority of the killings have taken place in central Dublin including last week's brutal slaying of Gerard 'Batt' Byrne (25), shooting dead of Kenneth Byrne (30) in February 2004 and Jimmy Curran's (42) killing at the Green Lizard pub in the Liberties area in April 2005.