DUBLIN'S organised criminals are coming under increased pressure from the Garda investigation into the murder of Veronica Guerin. Gardai have recovered 69 guns in searches which started in early July. Five weapons were recovered in one raid last week.
The weapons range from sawn off shotguns to powerful modern automatic assault rifles. One such weapon, a Heckler and Koch G3 rifle, was found in a ventilation shaft at St Vincent's Hospital, wrapped in a body bag. A man who is already serving a two year suspended jail sentence was arrested and is expected to face charges of possessing the rifle at St Vincent's.
Detectives investigating the murder have particularly targeted the criminal networks of the two Dublin criminals, both currently abroad, who are suspected of organising and ordering Ms Guerin's murder.
Senior detectives dismiss claims, reported in some newspapers, that the men are not the principal suspects. Gardai are also aware that the two are the source of some newspaper allegations about Garda corruption and involvement in the drugs trade.
Two gardai, who had associated with one of the Guerin murder suspects, were able to satisfy their colleagues, at the outset of the investigation, about their positions. One had a business connection with the suspect, through a partnership in a garage, which ended acrimoniously last year. The other, a detective working in the Central Detective Unit, was merely a neighbour who had tried to get the suspect to work as an informant.
One of the stories recently fed by the Guerin suspects to journalists, which has been carried in two newspapers, alleges that a Dublin detective was acting as a minder for a heroin smuggler.
The story is incorrect. Senior officers were fully aware that the officer was involved in a sting type operation and supported his action.
The Garda operation was disrupted when Customs officers inadvertently arrested the smuggler. The garda involved was already on a promotion list and has risen in rank since the operation.
Meanwhile, gardai say Michael Brady, the man shot dead at a Dublin apartment complex, was not involved in organised crimes and may have been killed ford "personal" reasons. It is suspected, however, that he wash killed by members of a Dublin drug trafficking gang with a grudge against him.
Brady was released from prisons last year after serving eight years for what was described as the brutal rape and strangulation of his wife at their home in Clondalkin in 1987. He killed his wife after a day long Christmas drinking, binge and left her body in the living room of their house, where it was found the next morning by their young children.
Brady was a bricklayer and was not involved in crime. He is said to have made a determined effort to improve himself while in prison. Since his release, he had avoided drinking and was said that he living a quiet life, renting an apartment in the Clifden Court complex on Sarsfield Quay, where he was shot dead on Thursday night.
Gardai say there is no intelligence to connect him with any criminal activity in Dublin. The Garda knows, however, that a Dublin criminal held a long standing grievance against Brady.