THE LEADERS of a major drug-trafficking gang are being questioned by gardaí in five counties following one of the biggest operations against organised crime in recent years.
Some 300 gardaí met at Garda Headquarters, Phoenix Park, Dublin, and in Wexford and Cork stations from 4am yesterday before raiding over 30 locations in a co-ordinated pre-dawn operation.
The target of the so-called “super raid” was a drug-trafficking gang based mainly around Sheriff Street in Dublin’s north inner city but with criminal contacts nationally. The gang has been involved in a feud in recent years with another faction also based in Sheriff Street. The feud has cost five lives, two of them this year.
Gardaí yesterday searched 33 addresses in Dublin, Cavan, Wexford, Cork and Kildare. A total of 13 people, including all of the key targets, were arrested – nine of them in Dublin, and two in both Cork and Wexford.
Gardaí seized a small quantity of cocaine and confiscated mobile phones, computers and bulletproof vests. Records linked to property investments were also taken from the offices of solicitors and accountants by members of the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Yesterday’s raids were the latest chapter in an almost year-long specialist investigation into the feuding gangs. The probe has been stepped up in recent weeks following a near-fatal shooting last month in Swords, Co Dublin, and the revenge gang beating of a rival criminal in the north inner city just minutes later. “The key people had not gone head to head with each other for around two years until those attacks so that very much escalated things,” said one Garda source.
The rival factions were once members of one gang. However, about seven years ago, the gang leader, Christy Griffin (41), originally from Canon Lillis Avenue, Dublin, was accused of raping a young woman repeatedly from the time she was a child. Griffin has since been convicted of rape and is serving a life sentence.
Many of his associates stood by him while others believed Griffin’s accuser and formed a faction opposed to Griffin. A volatile and dangerous gangland feud ensued involving not only five murders, but numerous non-fatal shootings and pipe bomb and grenade attacks.
The Garda raids yesterday targeted the gang feuding with Griffin’s grouping.
“Operation Chisel”, which has been under way for 10 months, is centred on gathering information with a view to securing prosecutions under new anti-gangland legislation introduced last year. These laws made it an offence to lead or participate in a crime gang.
As well as the Dublin raids, searches took place in the other four counties because the gang has members living there or is supplying drugs to smaller gangs in those areas.
According to Garda sources, the target gang has forged close links with arguably the two biggest crime gangs in Ireland: the McCarthy-Dundon gang in Limerick; and the gang in Finglas, Dublin, once led by murdered criminal Eamon Dunne.
Yesterday’s operation was co-ordinated from Pearse Street Garda station by Chief Supt Pat Leahy, under Assistant Commissioner Mick Feehan, who is in charge of policing in Dublin, and Deputy Commissioner Martin Callinan, who is in charge of all operations across the force.
The search team was backed by armed members of the Emergency Response Unit, the Garda Dog Unit and the Garda Helicopter. The Public Order Unit, or riot squad, was also kept in reserve.
Garda sources said because members of both feuding factions live in such close proximity on Oriel Street and Sheriff Street, there were fears people would begin pouring on to the streets when gardaí arrived. “We needed the Public Order Unit just in case a disturbance developed as we moved in, especially one involving a lot of people,” said one source.
The 11 suspects being held last night, all of them men, range from 23 to 61 years. Two other men, one a 17 year old, were also arrested yesterday and have already appeared before the courts.