Notorious drug dealer died on toilet in rehab facility, inquest hears

Seán McCárthaigh

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 22nd, 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.

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, 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 inquest heard he also suffered from heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The inquest heard he was transferred to Clontarf Hospital for rehabilitation care on April 6th, 2024.

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 22nd, 2024 after he had complained of being unwell and feeling nauseous.

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.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Keane noted the deceased had suffered six falls in a period of around a month before his death.

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.

Involved in petty crime as a juvenile, Felloni embarked on a career in serious crime in the 1960s as a blackmailer and a pimp.

He began forcing women into prostitution, for which he received a conviction in 1964.

He also had a number of criminal convictions for physical assaults on his wife, Anne Marie.

Felloni picked up a string of convictions over the following years for burglary and assault before moving to Britain for a period, where he established connections with criminals involved in drug trafficking.

He was jailed for four years for conspiracy to import heroin after being arrested in Surrey in 1981.

On his return to Ireland in 1984, Felloni quickly established himself alongside another notorious criminal, Larry Dunne, as one of the main heroin dealers in Dublin as the city experienced an epidemic of the drug.

Several of his children including son, Luigi and daughter, Regina, also served lengthy prison sentences for drug offences.

Felloni himself was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1986 and immediately resumed his involvement in drugs on his release in 1993.

His criminal career effectively ended in June 1996 when he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for heroin trafficking, which was the longest prison sentence ever imposed at the time for drug offences.

Felloni also became one of the first targets of the Criminal Assets Bureau after its establishment in 1996.

Following his release from prison in 2011 after serving 14 and a half years of his sentence, Felloni kept a low profile.

He was photographed accompanying his daughter, Regina, to court in 2020 when she was charged with a drug offence.

The inquest heard she continued to help in providing care for her father up to his death.