ARMED DRUGS gangs shooting each other over small debts are striking fear into communities but gardaí are tackling them head on, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has said.
Speaking after a three-week period of gun violence in Dublin that has left 10 men wounded, four of them fatally, Mr Murphy said his officers were determined to catch those responsible.
Since the shooting dead of Michael Cronin and James Maloney in Summerhill, Dublin, last Wednesday week 21 firearms and drugs worth more than €4 million had been taken off the streets by gardaí.
In two of the gun seizures gardaí found loaded guns in cars that, Garda sources told The Irish Times, were about to be used in fatal shootings. Mr Murphy said there was an “inextricable” link between gun crime and the drugs trade.
“My people are out there, taking on the criminals, those groups of people who put fear into the community, and who want to go around shooting each other, taking each other out, be it for the recovery of small debts or because of [aggression] towards one another.”
However, gardaí were working constantly to contain gun violence and thwart murders linked to organised crime.
“These are a core of gangland-type thugs who wish to put fear into the community,” he said.
“We will face them down. We’re doing it day in, day out, and I’m looking forward in the near future to many successes in relation to crimes that have already taken place. But above all we want to prevent the crimes that these people are contemplating, and to ensure that the community are not living in fear.” He made his comments at the launch in Ballymun, Dublin, yesterday of a new community policing model.
Mr Murphy said gardaí were depending on the public to supply information that can assist them. He believed the new emphasis on community policing would foster closer relationships between the force and the public.
