Gardaí are to launch with immediate effect a major crackdown on suspected members of drug gangs across Dublin city.
The operation, including both overt and covert operations, follows the shooting dead on Monday of 22-year-old father of one James Purdue in Donaghmede - the sixth murder in the north Dublin area since February.
A case conference to assess progress on the investigation into Mr Purdue's murder, involving 60 detectives, took place yesterday afternoon in Coolock Garda station. Two other case conferences examining progress on the recent murders of two other men in the area, Patrick Harte and Keith Fitzsimons, also took place yesterday.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is believed to have told his Cabinet colleagues at a briefing yesterday that those involved in the shootings are "disparate and desperate" people.
Senior gardaí are understood to have told the Minister there is no one "Mr Big" for them to target, with many of the perpetrators and victims of recent murders being low-level members of criminal gangs.
There is believed to be ongoing concern within Government circles at the level of gangland activity in the Dublin area.
Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has previously indicated that the campaign against those suspected of being part of organised crime will intensify.
The Irish Times has learned that a significant extension of the ongoing €21 million Operation Anvil is due to be introduced in the coming days.
Among the measures to be introduced are high-visibility, continuous monitoring of the activities of individuals suspected of involvement in criminal activity at all levels. Other covert surveillance measures will also be employed.
Gardaí investigating the murder of Mr Purdue outside an apartment at Grattan Hall in Donaghmede are confident of finding the car used by his attackers.
The twin-exhaust dark saloon car with a rear spoiler and bright white six-spoke alloy wheels was seen outside the gates of the apartment complex in the days and hours leading up to the attack.
Mr Purdue, who it is believed may have previously acted as a "drug mule" for local dealers, was shot two times by an unknown assailant as he returned to the apartment where he lived with his girlfriend and three-year-old daughter. He managed to use his keys to get into the ground-floor apartment, but died a short time later in Beaumont Hospital.
While gardaí are aware he was a friend of Patrick Lawlor, who disappeared in suspicious circumstances in December 2004, they do not believe at this stage that his murder is linked to that disappearance.