Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Gardai are satisfied that the man shot dead by teenagers near his
central Dublin home at the weekend was not involved in drug trafficking
recently, although he had served a lengthy jail sentence in Cuba.
Mechanic Aidan O'Kane is believed to have been sentenced to 11 years
imprisonment by the Cuban authorities on a drugs conviction after he had
fled there from Ireland in 1994.
Mr O'Kane had been arrested in the Republic by gardai in connection with
the seizure of a large haul of cannabis fourteen years ago but left the
country before he was due to stand trial. Gardai confirmed last night
that they were making extensive inquiries into Mr O'Kane's past but had
established he had been in prison in Cuba for drugs offences. However,
officers stressed that the 50-year-old murder victim had not come to
their attention since his return home and was not suspected of being
involved in drug trafficking in the East Wall area.
It also emerged last night that gardai are investigating an apparent
exchange of mobile phone text messages between Mr O'Kane and one of the
youths interviewed by gardai about his death. A text sent to Mr O'Kane's
phone by the youth suggested that he would "need more than a Glock"
(handgun) to protect himself.
It has emerged that he had befriended a group of youths in East Wall,
whom he thought were interested in bicycles and motorcycles he had been
repairing. However, locals claimed that the youths had been drinking
around his house and asked him to ban them.
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