A journalist and a Dublin based-detective were in the firing line for a gangland hit..

That’s the claim as gardai investigate reports that a member of the city’s shady underworld ordered the deaths of three people.

It’s understood threats were made to well known news reporter Mick McCaffrey after an article in the Sunday World, which prompted him to leave his home for a time…  a senior detective was also targetted.. and a third person is understood to have been a witness in a trial

The hit is believed to have been ordered from inside a Dublin jail…  and the reporter in question was advised that an assassination plot was at an ‘advanced stage’…  striking chill reminders across the journalistic world – about the gangland hit that saw the gunning down of Dublin journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996.

Gardai are taking the claims seriously and have arrested 6 people for questioning, 4 of whom are still being held.