Garda to seek more funds for 'Anvil'

An Garda Síochána is preparing plans to seek a multimillion euro round of new funding from the Government in an effort to intensify its Operation Anvil campaign against armed gangs in Dublin, The Irish Times has learned.

The move comes in the wake of the city's latest gangland murder and as Opposition parties put renewed pressure on the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to escalate the campaign against armed gangs which, they say, are undermining entire communities in the capital.

Of the 13 gangland-style murders committed in the State so far this year, charges have been brought in just one case. Eleven of the murders have taken place in Dublin.

A political row had last night broken out over the murder on Wednesday afternoon of drug dealer Mark Glennon (32) at his Hartstown home in west Dublin.

Labour accused Mr McDowell of complacency, saying a lack of resources was weakening the Garda fight against armed gangs.

Fine Gael said Mr McDowell was "in denial" in his refusal to accept serious armed crime was increasing.

However, Mr McDowell insisted the Garda was better resourced than ever in the fight against organised crime.

"In west county Dublin, there has never been as much Garda activity, there have never been as many resources. And I have given Commissioner Conroy every last cent that he has asked me for," he said.

Joan Burton TD (Lab), in whose west Dublin constituency Mark Glennon was murdered, said Dublin 15 remained "under-policed" and that criminal gangs in the area believed they could act with impunity despite Operation Anvil. Armed gangs had created "an oppressive regime in neighbourhoods", she said.

The party's justice spokesman Joe Costello TD said what was needed was a "fundamental review of the Garda approach to dealing with gangs and gun murders".

Fine Gael's justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe TD said Mr McDowell had tried to manipulate the media into believing crime was falling when it was not.

Senior Garda sources last night told The Irish Times that €6.5 million in funding made available by the Government in May for Operation Anvil is set to run out at the end of next month.

Garda management is already preparing to apply for additional funding from the Government to extend the operation into the New Year and intensify it.

In the short-term, west Dublin is to be flooded with uniformed gardaí backed by teams of armed detectives, including members of the Emergency Response Unit. That deployment has already begun in anticipation of further bloodshed following the latest murder.

Operation Anvil was established in May after a spate of gun murders in Dublin. The citywide campaign has involved gardaí working 15,000 hours of extra overtime every week.

Gardaí working on the operation have made almost 550 arrests, conducted around 7,500 checkpoints and 2,000 drug searches. The number of firearms seized is approaching 140.

Meanwhile, detectives investigating the murder of Mark Glennon yesterday searched four houses in west Dublin. No arrests were made.

The 32-year-old father of one was gunned down outside his home at Hazelwood Crescent, in Hartstown, at 4pm on Wednesday. He was killed as part of an ongoing feud between two rival west Dublin drugs gangs.

Gardaí believe a 22-year-old from west Dublin carried out the latest murder. They are working on the theory that this man's brother tried to kill Mark Glennon at his home two weeks ago.

The same men, they believe, were behind the murder of his brother, Andrew (30), in Clonee, Co Meath, in April.