Gardaí believe a feud between two emerging crime gangs in north Dublin has escalated in recent weeks with taunting on social media and via messaging apps leading to serious violence.
In an unusual move, several houses being used by Finglas gang members which were raided by gardaí over the last 48 hours have been taken back into the possession of Dublin City Council and boarded up.
One of the houses raided in the north Dublin suburb on Thursday had been fitted with bullet proof windows and reinforced doors. It also had a CCTV system that detectives believe was installed to give those inside forewarning of any attacks by their rivals or raids by Garda teams.
Gardaí suspect the house was being used as a base by men aligned to one of the feuding gangs.
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The search of that property was one of nine such searches in Finglas on Thursday in response to an outbreak of violence in the area, involving beatings and a number of serious attacks on houses. In one such incident an explosive device was thrown at a house occupied by a family with no connection to the feud.
In another incident, last week, a member of one of the gangs opened fire on a house where he believed a rival gang member lived, though the shots were directed at the wrong house, whose occupants have no links to crime.
Some of the attacks have been recorded by the perpetrators, with videos and footage sent to rival gang members to taunt them. While the two groups are rival drugs gangs, some gardaí believe the violence is being spurred on by teenagers who want to engage in attacks for recreational purposes.
Searches
The search operation targeting the houses in Finglas on Thursday was carried out by the Emergency Response Unit, Garda Dog Unit, Blanchardstown District Detective Unit and members of the Garda Task Force and Divisional Scenes of Crime Unit. The houses were targeting for searching on suspicion they were “being utilised by organised crime groups”.
During that operation, gardaí seized two firearms – including a sub-machine gun – 300 rounds of ammunition and over €47,000 in cash. An incident room has been established in Finglas Garda station to investigate the activities of the feuding criminals.
Garda sources described them as a new wave of young gang members, in their teens and 20s, who have become dominant players on the drug and gun crime scene in north Dublin.
One of the gangs is led by a Finglas-based criminal in his mid 20s who is aligned to the Kinahan cartel. His group has posed particular challenges to gardaí on the north side of the city, and the Garda specialist units, in recent years and a number of them have already been convicted of serious crimes and jailed.
Some members of that gang, which is the biggest and most dangerous group involved in the outbreak of feuding in Finglas, became embroiled in a feud based in and around Coolock, north Dublin, three years ago. A number of men lost their lives in quick succession in gun attacks during 2019 as part of that dispute. Other men linked to the gang have been jailed for long periods, up to life terms, for crimes committed as a part of the wider Kinahan-Hutch feud.
Attacks
Last week, as part of the worsening feud in Finglas, one of the gangs robbed and attacked a member of the rival gang, who retaliated in the days that followed by attacking a teenager with links to the other side.
The teenager who was beaten suffered broken bones to his face and was taken from treatment to Temple Street Children’s Hospital. Gardaí believe his attackers used a number of implements, including golf clubs.
Gardaí are also investigating a serious incident in Finglas on Wednesday when a man was assaulted by a group of young men, at least one of whom was armed with a hammer. It appears the victim was bundled into a vehicle in a housing estate, with people on a passing bus recording the incident on their phones and sharing the footage on social media.
Gardaí responded quickly and found the victim in another part of Finglas. He had suffered serious injuries and required medical treatment. The car used in the attack was found burnt out nearby on Dunsink Lane.
Garda Headquarters said a major investigation into the recent incidents, involving the rival gang members, was being conducted from Finglas Garda station, adding foot patrols and mobile patrols had been stepped up in the area.
