One of the most notorious criminal figures in Dublin’s illegal drug trade, Tony Felloni, died after suddenly collapsing while on a toilet in a rehabilitation facility two years ago, an inquest has heard.
Felloni (81), a divorced father of seven with an address at Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9 with the nickname “King Scum,” was pronounced dead at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital on April 22, 2024.
He had been transferred to the hospital’s emergency department by ambulance after becoming unresponsive in Clontarf Hospital where he was recovering from several broken ribs following a fall at home.
A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Thursday heard the deceased had suffered a series of falls in the months before his death.
The result of a postmortem showed he died as a result of hypovolemic shock after suffering a loss of two litres of blood from an injury to his spleen.
A pathologist who carried out a post mortem on the deceased’s body, Eamon Leen, gave evidence that he believed the injury to Felloni’s spleen had been caused by a fall.
Prof Leen said a normally healthy young adult would struggle to cope with such a loss of blood.
In reply to questions from coroner Clare Keane about what triggered the fatal injury, he said “something dramatic and acute happened in the hours before his death.”
While he originally believed that Felloni had suffered a fall, Prof Keane accepted that it was possible that the injury to his spleen could have been triggered by “a minor trauma” such as hitting against something given Felloni’s underlying health conditions.
The pathologist observed that a spleen is essentially “a bag of blood,” while also noting that the deceased was on blood thinning medication at the time.
The inquest heard he also suffered from heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
A consultant geriatrician at the Mater, Colin Mason, gave evidence of the care provided to Felloni after his admission to the hospital on March 30, 2024 following a fall at his home.
Dr Mason said the deceased had been suffering multiple falls including four in the previous month. He said tests confirmed that Felloni had suffered three broken ribs and a fracture of his lumbar spine
The inquest heard a healthcare assistant in the Mater had also found the patient on his knees in the hospital after his legs gave away on April 2, 2024.
However, Dr Mason said there was no evidence that Felloni had suffered any new injury in the fall.
The inquest heard he was transferred to Clontarf Hospital for rehabilitation care on April 6, 2024.
Another consultant geriatrician, Lucy Chapman, said Felloni’s mobility had improved during his stay and he was due to be discharged on April 24, 2024 once increased home care provision had been arranged.
Dr Chapman gave evidence of how tests were carried out to ensure that Felloni would be able to get up and down stairs in order to be allowed to go home.
She recalled that he had been allowed to leave the hospital on April 19, 2024 with a friend to attend to a financial matter after he had declined the offer of being accompanied by a care assistant.
A nurse at Clontarf Hospital, Geroge Reyes, gave evidence of wheeling the patient on a commode into a toilet at around 5.45am on April 22, 2024 after he had complained of being unwell and feeling nauseous.
Mr Reyes said Felloni was “pale, cold and clammy with slurred speech” before he lost consciousness. Evidence was heard that efforts to resuscitate the patient were unsuccessful.
In reply to questions from counsel for the State Claims Agency, Brian Sugrue BL, Mr Reyes said Felloni had not suffered any fall under his care.
The inquest heard the deceased’s body was formally identified to gardaí by his daughter, Regina.
Ms Felloni, who had remained close to her father, was expected to attend his inquest but did not show up at the hearing.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, Dr Keane noted the deceased had suffered six falls in a period of around a month before his death. The coroner observed that the rib fractures were on the same side of the body as the spleen.
Dr Keane said she was satisfied that the fatal injury was the result of a fall at home, noting there was evidence that he had hit off a chair during the fall which resulted in his hospitalisation.
Felloni was regarded as one of the key figures for the heroin epidemic which ravished poor inner city communities in Dublin during the 1980s and he was blamed for creating the first generation of heroin addicts in the capital.
The former top garda who put Tony “King Scum” Felloni behind bars today declares: “He was an evil man.”
And, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mirror, John O’Driscoll also says that Felloni, 81, was broke when he died of a heart attack in Dublin last week.
The man who brought down Felloni’s Dublin heroin empire in the 1990s continued: “We took everything off him.”
Mr O’Driscoll retired as a Garda Assistant Commissioner in 2022 after leading the unprecedented international crackdown on the Kinahan drugs cartel.
He was in charge of Operation Pizza, a Store Street Drugs Unit probe into Felloni and his associates that saw the criminal hit with a massive 20-year jail term in 1996 for dealing heroin in central Dublin.
Felloni was widely regarded as one of the most evil drug criminals in the history of the State and ruined countless lives by his dealing of heroin in the 1980s and 1990s in the capital.
Mr O’Driscoll revealed that three of the Garda’s most senior officers were central to the takedown on Felloni, who died in the city’s Mater Hospital on Monday.
Mr O’Driscoll said: “I was the sergeant and my troops included Seamie Boland who is now head of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau; Angela Willis, who is Assistant Commissioner in charge of Dublin and Paul Cleary, who is an Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Eastern Region.
“The three of them would have been very much involved in that case.”
All three were rank and file, plain clothes gardai in the Store Street Unit and were tasked with taking on drug dealers in the area.
Their careers have prospered since their days on Mr O’Driscoll’s team after they secured the conviction and sentencing of Felloni.
That 20-year jail-term was among the biggest ever handed down to a drug dealer at the time, and Mr O’Driscoll said that was a reflection of how serious his crimes were.
And he said that his local squad and the national drugs unit, including future Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan and Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan were both on Felloni, and other members of the family.
Mr O’Driscoll told us: “It was a conviction that was very well received by the community who had long complained about his activities over many years in the heroin trade.
“He received a 20-year sentence having been caught numerous times by both the national drug unit as it was at the time, that would have been Noirin O’Sullivan, Michael O’Sullivan and [others].
“So they had a number of charges and then he became the focus of attention of the unit I was in charge of in Store Street.
“And of course, it wasn’t just Tony. We had an operation called Operation Pizza, so we put the whole family out of business.
“A number of the family were involved in heroin selling, including, in particular, Luigi and Regina.
“All three were convicted around that time, putting an end to that dynasty, putting them out of business.”
And when asked if he thought Felloni was a bad man, Mr O’Driscoll replied: “Yes. He was an evil man, partly based on the fact not only his drug selling, but the impact he had on some of his family members, who potentially would have taken a different route had they not been guided by their father down that route.
“He had a record of viciousness in terms of his relationship with his wife.
“He had no sympathy for drug users or had not much care for his own family.
“He had a particular reputation for being ruthless in the drug trade and having no sympathy for those who had succumbed to the habit.
“He had a reputation of being heartless in terms of even dealing with those who sold drugs.
“He had little sympathy for anybody who would be unable to afford a deal of heroin or whatever it might be.
“It would be hard to find much positive to say about him. It was evidenced by the number of funerals of victims of drug users were so frequent at the time, and reflected in the fact that there was a generation of kids, many of whom were raised by grandparents rather than the parents, because of the extent of heroin-related deaths.
“He wasn’t the only seller of heroin in the 1980s, but he was a significant player, which was reflected in the sentence.”
Mr O’Driscoll also said the Store Street team’s collaboration with the local community to take on Felloni, who was hated in the area, set a template for future investigations.
He continued: “Certainly that was the approach of the drug unit in Store Street at the time.
“We developed a reputation for success in terms of producing the goods in arrests and convictions.
“But it was more successful, in the manner in which went around business.
“We were a community focused unit that at all times, listened to and reacted to the what the community were experiencing as a consequence of the heroin epidemic at the time.”
Felloni, who is believed to have amassed more than €1million in assets through heroin dealing between 1988 and 1996, spent 14 years in Portlaoise Prison for drug dealing.
He was released in late 2011.
He was stripped of €500,000 in assets by the Criminal Assets Bureau in May 2010 after officers finally emerged victorious from a 14-year-battle to seize his ill-gotten-gains.
The money included cash stashed in accounts throughout Ireland and England as well as money from the sale of a house.
And Mr O’Driscoll said Felloni was finished with crime when he came out of jail and he died broke.
He added: “We took everything off him basically. He had become institutionalised.
“He had spent so much of his life in prison, because at that stage of his life to receive a 20-year sentence, it was it was unlikely that his criminal career would resurrect again. I think he was defeated at that stage.”
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Felloni (81), a divorced father of seven with an address at Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9 with the nickname “King Scum,” was pronounced dead at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital on April 22, 2024.
He had been transferred to the hospital’s emergency department by ambulance after becoming unresponsive in Clontarf Hospital where he was recovering from several broken ribs following a fall at home.
A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Thursday heard the deceased had suffered a series of falls in the months before his death.
The result of a postmortem showed he died as a result of hypovolemic shock after suffering a loss of two litres of blood from an injury to his spleen.
A pathologist who carried out a post mortem on the deceased’s body, Eamon Leen, gave evidence that he believed the injury to Felloni’s spleen had been caused by a fall.
Prof Leen said a normally healthy young adult would struggle to cope with such a loss of blood.
In reply to questions from coroner Clare Keane about what triggered the fatal injury, he said “something dramatic and acute happened in the hours before his death.”
While he originally believed that Felloni had suffered a fall, Prof Keane accepted that it was possible that the injury to his spleen could have been triggered by “a minor trauma” such as hitting against something given Felloni’s underlying health conditions.
The pathologist observed that a spleen is essentially “a bag of blood,” while also noting that the deceased was on blood thinning medication at the time.
The inquest heard he also suffered from heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
A consultant geriatrician at the Mater, Colin Mason, gave evidence of the care provided to Felloni after his admission to the hospital on March 30, 2024 following a fall at his home.
Dr Mason said the deceased had been suffering multiple falls including four in the previous month. He said tests confirmed that Felloni had suffered three broken ribs and a fracture of his lumbar spine
The inquest heard a healthcare assistant in the Mater had also found the patient on his knees in the hospital after his legs gave away on April 2, 2024.
However, Dr Mason said there was no evidence that Felloni had suffered any new injury in the fall.
The inquest heard he was transferred to Clontarf Hospital for rehabilitation care on April 6, 2024.
Another consultant geriatrician, Lucy Chapman, said Felloni’s mobility had improved during his stay and he was due to be discharged on April 24, 2024 once increased home care provision had been arranged.
Dr Chapman gave evidence of how tests were carried out to ensure that Felloni would be able to get up and down stairs in order to be allowed to go home.
She recalled that he had been allowed to leave the hospital on April 19, 2024 with a friend to attend to a financial matter after he had declined the offer of being accompanied by a care assistant.
A nurse at Clontarf Hospital, Geroge Reyes, gave evidence of wheeling the patient on a commode into a toilet at around 5.45am on April 22, 2024 after he had complained of being unwell and feeling nauseous.
Mr Reyes said Felloni was “pale, cold and clammy with slurred speech” before he lost consciousness. Evidence was heard that efforts to resuscitate the patient were unsuccessful.
In reply to questions from counsel for the State Claims Agency, Brian Sugrue BL, Mr Reyes said Felloni had not suffered any fall under his care.
The inquest heard the deceased’s body was formally identified to gardaí by his daughter, Regina.
Ms Felloni, who had remained close to her father, was expected to attend his inquest but did not show up at the hearing.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, Dr Keane noted the deceased had suffered six falls in a period of around a month before his death. The coroner observed that the rib fractures were on the same side of the body as the spleen.
Dr Keane said she was satisfied that the fatal injury was the result of a fall at home, noting there was evidence that he had hit off a chair during the fall which resulted in his hospitalisation.
Felloni was regarded as one of the key figures for the heroin epidemic which ravished poor inner city communities in Dublin during the 1980s and he was blamed for creating the first generation of heroin addicts in the capital.
Former top garda who took down Tony 'King Scum' Felloni: 'He was an evil man'
The former top garda who put Tony “King Scum” Felloni behind bars today declares: “He was an evil man.”
And, in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mirror, John O’Driscoll also says that Felloni, 81, was broke when he died of a heart attack in Dublin last week.
The man who brought down Felloni’s Dublin heroin empire in the 1990s continued: “We took everything off him.”
Mr O’Driscoll retired as a Garda Assistant Commissioner in 2022 after leading the unprecedented international crackdown on the Kinahan drugs cartel.
He was in charge of Operation Pizza, a Store Street Drugs Unit probe into Felloni and his associates that saw the criminal hit with a massive 20-year jail term in 1996 for dealing heroin in central Dublin.
Felloni was widely regarded as one of the most evil drug criminals in the history of the State and ruined countless lives by his dealing of heroin in the 1980s and 1990s in the capital.
Mr O’Driscoll revealed that three of the Garda’s most senior officers were central to the takedown on Felloni, who died in the city’s Mater Hospital on Monday.
Mr O’Driscoll said: “I was the sergeant and my troops included Seamie Boland who is now head of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau; Angela Willis, who is Assistant Commissioner in charge of Dublin and Paul Cleary, who is an Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Eastern Region.
“The three of them would have been very much involved in that case.”
All three were rank and file, plain clothes gardai in the Store Street Unit and were tasked with taking on drug dealers in the area.
Their careers have prospered since their days on Mr O’Driscoll’s team after they secured the conviction and sentencing of Felloni.
That 20-year jail-term was among the biggest ever handed down to a drug dealer at the time, and Mr O’Driscoll said that was a reflection of how serious his crimes were.
And he said that his local squad and the national drugs unit, including future Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan and Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan were both on Felloni, and other members of the family.
Mr O’Driscoll told us: “It was a conviction that was very well received by the community who had long complained about his activities over many years in the heroin trade.
“He received a 20-year sentence having been caught numerous times by both the national drug unit as it was at the time, that would have been Noirin O’Sullivan, Michael O’Sullivan and [others].
“So they had a number of charges and then he became the focus of attention of the unit I was in charge of in Store Street.
“And of course, it wasn’t just Tony. We had an operation called Operation Pizza, so we put the whole family out of business.
“A number of the family were involved in heroin selling, including, in particular, Luigi and Regina.
“All three were convicted around that time, putting an end to that dynasty, putting them out of business.”
And when asked if he thought Felloni was a bad man, Mr O’Driscoll replied: “Yes. He was an evil man, partly based on the fact not only his drug selling, but the impact he had on some of his family members, who potentially would have taken a different route had they not been guided by their father down that route.
“He had a record of viciousness in terms of his relationship with his wife.
“He had no sympathy for drug users or had not much care for his own family.
“He had a particular reputation for being ruthless in the drug trade and having no sympathy for those who had succumbed to the habit.
“He had a reputation of being heartless in terms of even dealing with those who sold drugs.
“He had little sympathy for anybody who would be unable to afford a deal of heroin or whatever it might be.
“It would be hard to find much positive to say about him. It was evidenced by the number of funerals of victims of drug users were so frequent at the time, and reflected in the fact that there was a generation of kids, many of whom were raised by grandparents rather than the parents, because of the extent of heroin-related deaths.
“He wasn’t the only seller of heroin in the 1980s, but he was a significant player, which was reflected in the sentence.”
Mr O’Driscoll also said the Store Street team’s collaboration with the local community to take on Felloni, who was hated in the area, set a template for future investigations.
He continued: “Certainly that was the approach of the drug unit in Store Street at the time.
“We developed a reputation for success in terms of producing the goods in arrests and convictions.
“But it was more successful, in the manner in which went around business.
“We were a community focused unit that at all times, listened to and reacted to the what the community were experiencing as a consequence of the heroin epidemic at the time.”
Felloni, who is believed to have amassed more than €1million in assets through heroin dealing between 1988 and 1996, spent 14 years in Portlaoise Prison for drug dealing.
He was released in late 2011.
He was stripped of €500,000 in assets by the Criminal Assets Bureau in May 2010 after officers finally emerged victorious from a 14-year-battle to seize his ill-gotten-gains.
The money included cash stashed in accounts throughout Ireland and England as well as money from the sale of a house.
And Mr O’Driscoll said Felloni was finished with crime when he came out of jail and he died broke.
He added: “We took everything off him basically. He had become institutionalised.
“He had spent so much of his life in prison, because at that stage of his life to receive a 20-year sentence, it was it was unlikely that his criminal career would resurrect again. I think he was defeated at that stage.”
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