DUTCHMAN ADMITS MURDERING IRISH TRIO

Police in The Hague have directly connected two Dutch nationals in
their early 20s to the killings of the three Irishmen in the city two
months ago.

One suspect has admitted he carried out the killings, while the second
confirmed he was present in the apartment in Scheveningen, a seaside
resort outside the city.

The public prosecutor's office yesterday described the men as a
22-year-old from The Hague, and a 20-year old from Wassenaar, a suburb
of the city. It is understood that the three Irishmen who were shot,
their bodies mutilated and then set alight, knew their killers.

One of the suspects, who have been in custody for four weeks, has
confessed to the triple killing, to setting fire to the apartment and
to two other violent robberies in the Netherlands in April. "In the
last of these attacks, people were put under threat from firearms and
a certain amount of goods and money were taken from them," according
to a police statement yesterday.

The families of brothers Vincent (29), and Morgan Costello (21), from
Bansha, Co Tipperary, and Damien Monahan (24), from Ennis, Co Clare,
were telephoned on Tuesday night by the officer leading the
investigation to inform them of the breakthrough.

A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office, Ms Kitty Nooy, said
police were not searching for additional suspects. She said both men
were known to police, with one of them "well known" to the force.

Ms Nooy said police were currently investigating whether the men were
under the influence of drugs at the time of the killings, and the
specific role of the second man, who claims to have been a bystander.

According to Ms Nooy there may have been drugs present in the
apartment but it was "not very likely" that the deaths were
drug-related or linked to a major drugs gang. She added that the
mutilations could have occurred after the deaths in an effort by the
killers to conceal their identities.

Meanwhile, the detention of the injured English associate of heroin
dealer Derek Dunne has been formally extended by a Dutch magistrate
because he has nowhere else to go.

Mr Dunne was killed in an armed confrontation at his home in a suburb
of Amsterdam at the weekend, after the Englishman was forced to bring
an armed gang to the Dubliner's townhouse to repay a debt. The
25-year-old appeared before a magistrate's court in The Hague on
Tuesday evening and will now be held for a further 10 days.

A second associate of Mr Dunne, a Dutchman aged 30, seriously injured
with gunshot wounds, remains in protective custody in hospital.

Police are still searching for two or three men who fled the scene in
a car, but officers believe they have identified the gang.

The two injured men have cooperated with the police investigation, as
has Mr Dunne's partner, Ms Rachel Mitchell, the daughter of crime
figure, George "The Penguin" Mitchell. Mr Dunne's body has been
released to his family for the funeral, which is likely to take place
in Amsterdam.