Garda investigation into fatal gangland shooting of Gary ‘The Canary’ Carey complete

Gary Carey (41), a father of three from Islandbridge, Dublin was pronounced dead at St James’s Hospital in Dublin on August 5, 2022 from injuries he sustained six weeks earlier when he was ambushed by a gunman in an underground car park at the Hilton Hotel on South Circular Road in Kilmainham.

The shooting occurred shortly before midday on June 24, 2022 as the victim had gone to the hotel to use its gym.

At a brief sitting at Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Monday, Detective Inspector Maeve O’Sullivan said the Garda file on the case would be forwarded to the DPP in the next two to three weeks.

Det Insp O’Sullivan made an application for an adjournment of the inquest for six months to await a decision from the DPP on whether anyone should face a criminal prosecution in relation to Mr Carey’s death.

She told the coroner, Clare Keane, that the deceased’s family were aware of the application for an adjournment of the inquest and had no objection.

Dr Keane granted the application and adjourned the case until January 13, 2025.

Last year, an earlier hearing of the inquest was informed that the deceased, who was nicknamed “The Canary”, had died as a result of “complications of gunshot wounds.”

Mr Carey’s partner, Nicola Donnan, and his mother, Noeleen, were at his bedside in the hospital’s intensive care unit when he passed away.

Four individuals – two males and two females – were arrested last year as part of the Garda investigations into the fatal shooting.

One of the females, who was a close associate of Mr Carey, was arrested on suspicion of leaking details of his movements to the gang who killed him.

A fifth individual, who was being held in Mountjoy Prison for an unrelated offence, was arrested and questioned in relation to Mr Carey’ murder a short time later.

The fatal attack on Mr Carey was the third time the victim was shot within a 15-month period.

In March 2021, he escaped serious injury when a bullet grazed his head in an incident in Ballyfermot.

Eight months later, Mr Carey was lucky to survive after he was shot outside a house in Ballyfermot.

Gardaí believe that the deceased had become involved in rows with a number of rival gangs over the drug trade in the capital.

Mr Carey had returned to Dublin just weeks before his death after living in Spain for a number of months.

As a senior figure in the illegal drug trade in the capital, the deceased had been questioned a number of times by gardaí over the years about seizures of drugs, firearms and cash.

Despite his long-term involvement in crime, Mr Carey served only one long jail term when he was sentenced to 15 months in prison by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in 2002 after he pleaded guilty to dealing drugs.

The victim’s younger brother, Darren Carey (20), was one of two men murdered in the so-called “Canal Murders” in 2000 which were committed by another leading criminal figure, Mark Desmond, who was himself murdered in December 2016.