{"id":523134,"date":"2026-06-28T20:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T20:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/523134\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T20:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T20:30:11","slug":"international-hitman-stayed-in-limerick-hotel-while-plotting-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/523134\/","title":{"rendered":"International hitman stayed in Limerick hotel while plotting murders\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Limerick hotel has been identified as the location where a notorious international hitman and an accomplice stayed while preparing to carry out a contract murder.<\/p>\n

The hitman and his driver, who had travelled from Sweden to carry out a murder in Co Limerick, had booked into the hotel three days before the planned attack.<\/p>\n

The hit failed after the car used by the two men was involved in a multiple vehicle crash<\/a> in which the gunman, named as Axel Liebsch Morales, 33, died.<\/p>\n

The hit team had lost their way late at night and engaged a sudden u-turn which caused a pile-up at a location between Newcastle West and Abbeyfeale.<\/p>\n

The body of the gunman was found at the scene, but his accomplice fled and was helped escape<\/a> by people connected to the family who had hired them.<\/p>\n

The planned attack had been orchestrated by a family in West Limerick in revenge for a violent incident in the past three years.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed identify hotel where hitman stayed\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed have now confirmed that a hotel in the Limerick area was used by Morales after he arrived in Ireland on June 5. The attack was planned for June 8.<\/p>\n

CCTV caught the two men arriving at the hotel and moving to and from the building.<\/p>\n

They posed as tourists on a visit to Ireland.<\/p>\n

Publicity about the accident prompted the hotel to contact garda\u00ed, who moved in and carried out a full forensic examination of the room.<\/p>\n

CCTV has also tracked them driving near the home of their intended target.<\/p>\n

Dead man armed and wearing a balaclava\u00a0<\/p>\n

On arrival at the fatal road accident, garda\u00ed were shocked to find the dead man wearing a balaclava mask and carrying a handgun with two clips of ammunition.<\/p>\n

A mobile phone was also left in the car, which pinpointed various locations.<\/p>\n

Morales was originally from South America but moved to Sweden years ago.<\/p>\n

Intelligence gathered by garda\u00ed quickly exposed that a murderous operation had been put in place for an attack on a house in Rathkeale and that the dead man was central to this.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed have harvested further CCTV showing the movements of the car, with foreign number plates, moving through various locations in Limerick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interpol confirmed Morales was wanted in Sweden in connection with two murders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Limerick hotel has been identified as the location where a notorious international hitman and an accomplice stayed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[59150,185200,45,54,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-523134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-gangland-crime","tag-limerick-news","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-courts","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}