The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and Dublin detectives are investigating a south Dublin criminal family who are reputed to have built up one of the largest drug-dealing networks in the city in recent years.
Details of the family's drug-dealing have emerged as a result of recent investigations by detectives in the south city following an assault on a local youth earlier this year. The youth suffered life-threatening head injuries, but has made a good recovery. He was attacked by a 20-year-old man who is a member of the family and is said to be a very active drug-dealer.
As a result of investigations into this assault, gardai uncovered details about the criminal family's operations. The head of the family, a man in his 50s with convictions for fraud and larceny over 20 years, is understood to have built up a trafficking network involving cannabis, heroin, cocaine and other drugs.
This man is said to have interests in public houses in Ireland and abroad. According to Garda sources, he and members of his extended family have built up a drug-dealing network to rival that of the gang operating in the south side of the city in the early 1990s which was responsible for the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin in June 1996.
This new gang has connections, through marriage in one instance, with members of the gang led by another notorious south Dublin criminal, Martin Cahill. Cahill was shot dead by a republican gunman in August 1994 at the behest of the gang which subsequently shot Ms Guerin.
According to Garda sources, the new south Dublin drugs gang also has links with former republican paramilitaries, and particularly with former members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). It is understood the head of the criminal family/gang was recently watched by gardai as he met a well-known former INLA figure in the Crumlin area.
The former INLA figure was suspected of shooting and injuring another INLA man near a shop on the Rathmines Road in June 1998.
Gardai suspect that the drugs gang is paying money to former INLA paramilitaries, effectively hiring these figures because of their terrorist experience and access to weapons. It is understood that in the past two months some of these former republicans have made threats to the lives of a number of people in the south city and that a number of people have fled the State.
Gardai also suspect that the criminal gang is paying money to former Provisional IRA figures in the south of the city, including a number of people who have been involved in vigilantism against other drug-dealers in the city.
It is believed these Provisional republicans have been responsible for a campaign of intimidation against a young local man and his family who are currently targets of the criminal gang.
The relationship between the south Dublin gang and local Provisionals is also a source of interest to gardai. In April, two Provisional IRA members were arrested following an alleged attempt to murder another local criminal who is seen as a rival of the drugs gang under investigation.
In that incident, gardai arrested the IRA members after a motorcycle was stopped by traffic gardai at the Walkinstown roundabout and a handgun recovered. In a subsequent search of one of the suspect's homes, addresses and details of a number of Dublin criminals were discovered, none of them connected to the south Dublin gang.
A file on this matter is being forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
As a result of the recent investigations carried out by local gardai, details of the extent of the criminal gang's activities and earnings emerged and these have been forwarded to the Criminal Assets Bureau. Under criminal assets legislation, the State can seize the assets of people suspected of earning money from drug-trafficking.
Meanwhile, gardai from the National Bureau of Crime Investigation are assisting detectives in Dundalk in the investigation of last week's murder of a local man believed to have been killed by the INLA.
It is believed Dundalk man Mr Stephen Connolly (26) was killed for refusing to pay a five-figure sum to a gang with INLA links. The main suspect is a Belfast man who has been living in Dundalk for several years and who is suspected of extorting money from publicans in the Co Louth and west Dublin areas.
According to local sources, Mr Connolly may have been shot dead on the orders of the local INLA leader. Mr Connolly had previously been threatened by the INLA and in March an attempt was made to abduct him but he escaped when he was able to wave down a passing Garda patrol car.