GARDAÍ HAVE seized more than 200 firearms from Limerick's feuding gangs since 2005, with annual gun seizures rising more than three-fold over the past four years.
Figures obtained by The Irish Times from Garda sources reveal while 20 weapons were seized in 2005, that figure jumped to 76 in 2006.
Some 70 weapons were seized in the city last year.
According to the latest available data, 50 guns were seized in Limerick in the year to November 6th, bringing total weapons seizures in the city to 216 since the beginning of 2005.
Last year, in a period that saw 99 gunfire incidents in the city, 41 people were prosecuted for firearms offences at Limerick's Circuit Criminal Court.
Following those convictions, gun crime in Limerick this year is down 64 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Some €3.5 million worth of drugs have been seized this year, up 23 per cent on the same period last year.
In 2001 the number of criminal proceedings involving drug dealers in Limerick reached 56 cases. By last year that had climbed to 194 cases, and will exceed 250 this year.
Speaking in the wake of the killing of Shane Geoghegan in Limerick last weekend, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy pledged to provide all the resources required to tackle gang crime in the city "within the bounds of possibility".
Mr Murphy said, while it may be "cold comfort" to someone living in a violent housing estate in Limerick, "the prisons are full because gardaí have been doing their job".
Some 40 members of Limerick's feuding gangs are currently in prison, he said.
An additional 90 gardaí have been stationed in the Limerick division in the past year, 80 of whom are based in the city.
He insisted the number of gardaí patrolling the streets of Limerick was higher than ever before.
These additional resources had led to the increased seizures of drugs and guns and the fall-off in gun crime there this year.
"The irony about Limerick is that the trend was in the right direction until the unfortunate incident with Shane Geoghegan," he said.
Mr Murphy made his comments in an interview with Marian Finucane on RTÉ Radio 1 on Saturday.
Gardaí investigating the murder of Mr Geoghegan on the Kilteragh housing estate in Dooradoyle in the early hours of last Sunday morning are continuing to search for the murder weapon.
Four shots were fired into the victim's body, with one fatally wounding the 28-year-old in the head.
Last Friday more than 20 addresses were raided in Limerick, Cork and Dublin.
The main focus of that operation was in Limerick, where houses owned by members of the gang believed to have carried out the murder were raided.
Gardaí believe the gang shot Mr Geoghegan after mistaking him for their target, who is a member of a rival drugs gang in Limerick.
Garda sources said the investigation involves between 40 and 50 members of the force.
Sources said the fact that raids were carried out in Cork and Dublin indicated the suspects' network of criminal allies was nationwide.
"This is going to be a very long investigation and it will focus on the gang's entire operation," said one Garda source.
The same source said while the murder investigation into the 2002 killing of nightclub head of security Brian Fitzgerald had taken five years, two men were now convicted and were serving life sentences.