Five gang ‘assassination attempts’ thwarted by gardaí

The establishment of a new garda task force to tackle organised crime will not impact resources available for other areas of policing, Assistant Garda Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan has said.

Mr O’Sullivan said it was “completely ridiculous” to suggest the new task force was a case of “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

“It’s a case of re-prioritising some of the people we have on some of the tasks we have,” he said. “We have plenty of resources from a manpower perspective so there is certainly no need to rob Peter to pay Paul.”

Speaking at a passing-out parade for probationary garda in Templemore, Co Tipperary, Mr O'Sullivan said the task force would enhance the capabilities of both the Criminal Assets Bureau and Garda. "It will make it more difficult for criminals at all levels."

Gardaí were “not starved of resources, whether it be financial, or manpower, or logistics, or transport,” he said.

Feud

Mr O’Sullivan, who has had responsibility for drugs and organised crime investigations, was asked about the feud between the Hutch and Kinahan gangs which has claimed seven lives since last year. He noted that the Kinahan gang had been under investigation since September of 1986.

“There have been excellent successes against them during that period of time,” he said, citing arrests, drug, cash and property seizures by gardaí.

“This is an ongoing process. It’s an ongoing conflict between ourselves and all criminal gangs, not just the Kinahans.”

Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald said the ongoing feud was “unprecedented in its audacity”.

Ms Fitzgerald, who also attended the ceremony at the Garda College, announced €50 million in additional funding to help gardaí tackle organised and rural crime.

She said the extra funding “ensures the gardaí have the necessary resources to face down the appalling and ruthless cycle of violence caused by organised crime and continue the successful crackdown on rural crime and burglaries”.

Asked about public concern about the current feud, Mr O’Sullivan said no criminal gang “has stood the test of time” and that eventually members were arrested “and their empires fall apart”.

“Criminal history will show you that if you look back at the last 20 years, gangs come and gangs go and we meticulously investigate them, we dismantle them, we take their organisations apart...”

He added that the “particularly dreadful” aspect in the current feud was that “a number of people have been murdered in close proximity in the north inner city and it’s compounded it” but the these groups tended to “implode” over time.

Thwarted

Mr O’Sullivan said at least five “assassination attempts” by gang members had been thwarted sine February by the “pro-active work” of gardaí.

“There are other cases, for operational reasons, I can’t talk about,” he said. “One message which has to go out: we don’t give up, we continue on investigating for as long as it takes...Nobody, no matter who they are, or however they market themselves, is above the law.”

Amid criticism of pay for new recruits, Ms Fitzgerald said the Government “would want” to make the job of being a garda more financially attractive at the appropriate time as the economy improves.

The Tánaiste said she was in discussions with garda representative groups about the Lansdowne Road agreement on pay and conditions but that recruitment drives were still drawing large numbers .

She said “accelerated” garda recruitment was on the cards and a Government target of having 15,000 gardaí - up from the current 12,800 - could be reached by 2019. “The precise number for next year, for example, will be a budgetary matter for discussion at Government level.”