Tony Felloni

Anthony Felloni (born Anthony Carroll, 6 January 1943 – 22 April 2024) was an Irish heroin dealer, pimp, and career criminal. Dubbed "King Scum" by media sources, Felloni became a hated figure in the 1980s and 1990s, blamed for introducing large quantities of heroin to Dublin and creating the city's first generation of heroin addicts. Originally a blackmailer and a pimp, Felloni later turned to burglary and robbery, before entering the drugs trade in Dublin city. His involvement ended after he was sentenced to twenty years in prison in 1996.

Early life Felloni was born in Dublin on 6 January 1943 to Ronaldo Felloni, a Sicilian immigrant, and Anne Carroll. As his parents were not married, he was given his mother's surname, giving him the name Anthony Carroll. His father worked as a tiler,

Criminal career Felloni had been involved in petty crime since childhood, and was sent to St Conleth's Reformatory School as a youth, where he met future heroin kingpin Larry Dunne. He later began to force women into prostitution; in 1964 he was convicted of "procuring young girls for immoral purposes". During the 1960s he pretended to be the brother of footballer George Best to rent a flat in Rathgar, in which he stored stolen goods. in 1967, while on remand for stealing a car, Felloni escaped from Bridewell Prison in Dublin by pretending to be a solicitor, The next month, he was sentenced to three months in prison for the theft of the car.

In 1980 Felloni moved to England and began to work in the growing drugs trade; he was arrested in Surrey in 1981 and jailed for four years for conspiracy to import heroin. and was held responsible for creating the first generation of heroin addicts there. His children worked as couriers and tasters, and many of them were later imprisoned. Ali Bracken claimed in the Sunday Tribune that "he enlisted his children to help him sell heroin when they were just teenagers and encouraged them to experiment with the drug so that he could control them."

Felloni was imprisoned in 1986 for heroin dealing, receiving a ten-year sentence, and was paroled in 1993. This repeated granting of bail to Felloni became a point of political debate during the 1996 referendum on the Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.

Following a Garda operation (codenamed "Operation Pizza") into his drug business, Felloni was arrested and charged with multiple drug offences. In June 1996, he was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for heroin trafficking, Assets of over IR£400,000 were seized in 1998; it was estimated that Felloni and his family had earned £875,000 from drug dealing since 1988. An appeal against the sentence was denied in 1999.

In 1998, Paul Reynolds published King Scum: The Life and Crimes of Tony Felloni, a book about Felloni and his criminal career.

In 2010, Gardaí seized another €500,000 from the family. Felloni was released in January 2011 after serving years; at 67 years old and suffering from AIDS, he was not expected to return to crime. Following his release from prison, Dublin City Council member Cieran Perry tabled an unsuccessful motion calling on the council not to assist Felloni "in any way" in getting a council house, with Cllr. Perry describing him as "actually scum of the earth" who "has done so much damage in the area".

Personal life and death Felloni's ex-wife Anne Marie Flynn was the sister of Dublin politician Mannix Flynn. Felloni and Flynn met in a café on O'Connell Street; both already had a number of convictions by the age of eighteen and were in jail six weeks after their wedding. In spite of the money he was making from the drug trade, Felloni would give none to his wife, forcing her to steal to feed the family. She told journalist Veronica Guerin that she had over 300 stitches on her body and that Felloni at one time attacked her with an axe.

Tony Felloni died from a heart attack at his home in Dublin, on 22 April 2024, at the age of 81.