A FUED between drug-traffickers has led to the shooting of two Irish gangsters.
Suspected murderer, Paddy Doyle, 27, died from multiple gunshot wounds when his car was ambushed in Estepona on Monday.
His Dublin underworld colleague Gary Hutch, 26, was badly injured when their BMW was attacked in Cancelada, on the outskirts of the town.
The unknown assailants pumped bullets through the windscreen and passenger door of the luxury jeep.
Driver Hutch lost control and ploughed the car into a lamppost.
Doyle fled the vehicle on foot but was chased by the attackers who then shot him in the head at point-blank range.
Both victims plus a third passenger in the car, Freddie Thompson, 27 – who escaped unharmed – were known gangsters in Ireland.
They had all been involved in serious criminal activities before Doyle relocated to the Costa del Sol two years ago.
Irish police said that Doyle had been a major figure on the Dublin criminal scene with a reputation for ruthlessness.
They are currently suspected of being involved in the drug trade.
He was jailed four years ago for violent disorder and possession of a deadly weapon but only served one year of a four-year sentence.
Neighbours in the Bel-Air urbanization recalled that he was a familiar figure, “driving his 4×4 too fast around the streets,” but no one was aware of any criminal activity.
Hutch was jailed for six years in 2001 for a heist which bagged 32,000 euros of jewellery and cash.
Thompson was arrested in the Netherlands in 2006 when seven kilos of cocaine and six handguns were found in his rented flat.
Those charges were dropped however, through lack of evidence.
