Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 Source: Sunday Business Post (Ireland) Website: http://www.sbpost.ie/ Address: Letters to Ed, 27-30 Merchants Quay, Dublin 8, Ireland Contact: 2000 The Sunday Business Post Fax: ++ 353 1 671 9407 BORDER DRUGS RACKETEER 'BEHIND MURDER' Dublin, Ireland - The murder of Dundalk publican Stephen Connolly is linked to a protection racket operated by renegade members of the INLA, garda sources have claimed. Connolly, who was in his mid 20s, was shot in the chest at 4am on Friday in Park Street in what detectives described as a professional hit. A senior garda source said Connolly had failed to pay a protection fee to a man who has been linked with the INLA. The source claimed the racketeer employed more than 30 people in pubs along the east coast. Connolly, who had been living in Jonesboro, south Armagh, was under surveillance last February by an undercover garda investigation into the cannabis trade, according to local officers. Earlier this year, an armed gang tried to drag Connolly into a van and gardai believe the same gang was responsible for his murder. The ringleader is a former armed robber originally from the North and has served two prison sentences. "He is involved in debt collecting and extortion and gets a cut from drug dealers and smugglers in the town," a detective claimed. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens