A Dublin drug dealer was shot dead in a ruthless double-cross by gangland thugs yesterday.

Father-of-one David 'Daithi' Douglas was approached by a lone male gunman and blasted in the head and chest on Bridgefoot Street, in the Liberties area of the south inner city, a short time after 4pm.

The 55-year-old was from Killala Road, Cabra, was shot up to six times outside the entrance to his wife's shop.

It is believed that Douglas was targeted as he walked to his wife Yumei's store, Shoestown, after attending a family funeral earlier in the day.

He was taken to St James's Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Gardai are investigating whether the murder is linked to the bitter feud between the Kinahan and Hutch crime gangs.

It was claimed yesterday that the chief suspects for organising the shooting had recently assured that they no longer had a problem with him.

Sources revealed that Douglas, who was loosely associated with the Hutch gang, received a phone call from one of the criminals - a hitman for the Kinahan cartel - stating the gangsters "no longer had an issue" with him.

Douglas, the father of a teenage daughter, had previously survived an assassination attempt near his Cabra home last November.

The suspects for this botched hit are also being investigated over the murder.

Douglas became a target for the Kinahan mob after he was wrongly blamed for being involved in an attempted murder on cartel associate Liam Roe outside Dublin's Red Cow Hotel on November 6.

However, detailed garda investigations later revealed that the murdered man was not at the Red Cow on that night.

After he survived the assassination attempt, his wife Yumei said that her husband was a "strong man".

"I don't care about whatever his history is, but he's on the good way now," she said.

Superintendent Patrick McMenamin, of Kevin Street Garda Station, said that investigating officers were looking for two individuals as part of the murder probe - the shooter and the getaway driver.

A Mercedes Benz car, which is believed to have been used in the killing, was discovered burnt out a short distance from the scene at Spitalfields, close to Carman's Hall, in the city.

A handgun was discovered at the scene of the crime.

Locals said that the shooting happened just few feet away from the door of a children's recreation and homework club named Busy Bees.

One of the added: "I heard a shot, but I thought that it was just banging from a local building site.

"But then I heard a lot of screeching of car brakes."

A 38-year-old man standing at the garda cordon said he had family members living nearby.

He added: "When I was young, if anyone had a dispute, they'd sort it out with a fistfight -but now it's solved with the barrel of a gun."

Belfast Telegraph