DUBLIN MAN REARRESTED IN DRUGS INQUIRY

A 20-year-old Dublin man arrested last year on drug-trafficking charges was
rearrested on Monday evening.

The man, who is suspected by gardai of ordering the murder of a Dublin
woman, Ms Sinead Kelly, was arrested in south Dublin and questioned about
drug offences.

Ms Kelly (21) was stabbed to death in June while working as a prostitute on
the banks of the Grand Canal in south Dublin. Two men are believed to have
attacked her on the orders of a third, to whom she owed about IEP1,000.

Ms Kelly was a heroin addict who was working as a prostitute and dealing in
heroin to feed her habit.

The man rearrested on Monday, who was living in a luxury house in Meath, has
had his income investigated by the Criminal Assets Bureau. The house was
raided when he was first arrested in July.

Originally from south Dublin, the man is believed to have produced a
certificate of earnings made out by a family member to account for his
wealth.

A file on the murder is being prepared for the Director of Public
Prosecutions after almost seven months of investigation. A number of
prostitutes who work the canal area have been interviewed about the
circumstances surrounding the murder.

The murder weapon, a long bladed knife, has never been found despite a trawl
of the canal and a search of its banks. A bag Ms Kelly was carrying is also
missing.

She came from a respectable background in north Dublin and had been living
in various Dublin Corporation flats in the city since becoming a heroin
addict.

A caller to RTE on the morning Ms Kelly's body was found knew her name
before she had been identified by gardai. The man phoned a second time, and
gardai believed at the time he knew who had killed her.

The initial stage of the murder investigation was based on tracing anybody
who had phoned the RTE press office that morning, using telephone records
from the station. A number of business people were interviewed by gardai in
Pearse Street.

Gardai believe one of Ms Kelly's assailants fled to England after the
murder. Another man, a drug addict from south Dublin, was arrested and
questioned at the same time as the man suspected of ordering the murder.

The 20-year-old suspected drug dealer was expected to be released last
night, and a file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in
relation to the alleged drug-trafficking.