Rattigan gang wage bloody week of war with botched hit and prison attack

Carey (41), from Islandbridge in the city, is fighting for his life in hospital this weekend after being seriously injured in a gun attack in Dublin on Friday, which was third attempt on his life in little over a year.

Sources say Carey’s operation had been growing in recent years, which brought him into dispute with rivals.

The Rattigan gang are the chief suspects for the botched hit as they are attempting to re-establish themselves as a force in the city’s gangland.

The shooting comes just days after the Rattigan gang launched a turf war inside Portlaoise Prison.

A prison officer was injured after a violent row broke out in the jail between associates of Rattigan and dissident killer Sean Connolly as part of an internal feud.

The incident on the C4 landing of the maximum-security prison last week is believed to be linked to a power struggle inside following the release of notorious gang boss Rattigan last year.

Sources said two Rattigan-linked criminals – including drug dealer Trevor Brunton – launched an attack on Connolly on the landing.

A prison officer intervened in the row and suffered injuries.

The prisoners involved have all been subjected to disciplinary action as a result of the incident.

A source said: “All hell was breaking loose and a prison officer stepped in to break it up. It seems to be linked to a power struggle since Rattigan left.”

Brunton is a drug dealer from Cabra in north Dublin who is serving a 10 year sentence for drugs offences. He was closely linked to Rattigan but was also linked to the Kinahan cartel in more recent years.

He served time in the past after being caught with a loaded gun in a nightclub and for other drug-dealing offences and has been involved in a number of violent incidents in prison over the years.

The other Rattigan associate is from Dublin’s south inner city and has also been involved in several incidents of violence.

Connolly, who is also from the south inner city and was a childhood friend of Rattigan, is currently serving life for the murder of veteran gangster Eamon Kelly in 2012.

At the time of the killing, Connolly was a member of the New IRA, which ordered the hit after the murder of their associate Alan Ryan.

Connolly was kicked off the republican E wing of the prison by other prisoners a number of years ago and moved to the C wing.

The prison row comes as associates of Rattigan are prime suspects for carrying out a gun attack on drug dealer Gary ‘the Canary’ Carey who was shot in Dublin on Friday. However, gardaí are also examining other lines of inquiry.

Carey, who is believed to be a significant player in the drug trade in Ireland, was injured in two other gun attacks last year, but both of those were suspected of being orchestrated by the south Dublin crime gang known as The Family. Carey was shot six times in the car park of the Hilton Hotel in Kilmainham on Friday, and had recently returned to Ireland after spending time abroad following the second gun attack on him last year.

He was described as being in critical but stable condition over the weekend.

Sources say Carey recently visited a veteran Dublin criminal based in the UK who is involved in the drugs trade and believe he will be out for blood if Carey doesn’t pull through.

“He was only over recently visiting him in England and he’ll be furious over this,” a source said.

Carey’s rival Brian Rattigan is currently believed to be based in Spain, where he hooked up with veteran criminal John Gilligan. Sources say he is still actively involved in the drug trade and supplies drugs to Ireland from his Spanish base.

One source claimed that, like Gilligan, he had been sending some drugs shipments through the post.

Rattigan as released from prison last year after spending 18 years behind bars for a variety of offences including manslaughter, drug dealing, firearms and assault.

He has been involved in a dispute with Carey over drug operations, but Carey has also been involved in another dispute with the south Dublin gang known as The Family.

They were believed to have been behind two separate gun attacks on Carey last year.

In the first attack in March last year, a bullet grazed his head and he was able to drive himself to hospital and didn’t make a complaint to gardaí.

In the second attack last November, Carey was shot several times outside a house in Ballyfermot, south Dublin.

Carey was also one of a number of people questioned by gardaí probing one of several gun attacks on gangland target Michael Frazer in 2014, when a gunman opened fire on him in Islandbridge.

Carey was not the suspected gunman and was later released without charge.