TWO SEPARATE Garda investigations are under way after documents containing personal information on members of a Dublin drug gang were stolen from a Garda vehicle.
Detectives are working on the theory that the information is now in the hands of a second gang that has been engaged in a long-term gangland feud with the men featured in the stolen documents.
Both of the rival groupings are based in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas of south Dublin. They have been involved a bitter feud since the start of the decade.
So far at least 10 men have lost their lives in tit-for-tat attacks.
The feud began when one faction accused a member of the other gang of supplying information that led to gardaí seizing drugs valued at more than £1 million and the jailing of two men.
The security document stolen last Monday from a car parked in a yard at Blackrock Garda station contains the names, ages, photographs and addresses of members of one of the gangs.
The information was compiled after the gang members moved into houses and apartments at different locations around south Dublin in a move to make it more difficult for the rival gang to attack them.
Gardaí are now preparing to visit the men whose details have been lost to alert them that their lives may be in danger and to give them security advice.
Garda sources said that although the robbery was a serious and embarrassing matter, much of the information in the document would have been known to the rival gang or could have been found out without difficulty.
However, there is concern in the Garda that some of the men may have already left the addresses detailed in the stolen document and that innocent people have moved in and may now be in danger.
The robbery is the subject of a criminal investigation, while the circumstances surrounding the document being left in a Garda car are the subject of an internal inquiry.
Gardaí are not sure if the document was stolen during a targeted operation by a thief who knew what he was looking for or if it was taken during an opportunistic robbery.
However, detectives believe the information stolen is now in the hands of one of the rival gangs.
The grouping is led by a man in his late 20s from Drimnagh. He is currently in prison on drugs and firearms charges. A number of his associates were arrested recently with substantial quantities of drugs and are facing lengthy prison terms.
The other gang is led by another man also in his late 20s and also from Drimnagh. Some of his gang members have recently been arrested and charged with serious firearms offences.
The gang leader is currently in Spain, where he fled about two months ago because he feared he was about to be murdered in Dublin.
The two gangs, along with a grouping in Limerick and a couple of other Dublin drug gangs, are regarded as the most dangerous criminals in the country.
The number of deaths, at 10, in the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud make it the bloodiest gangland dispute in the history of the State.
Most of those involved are still in their 20s and gardaí believe the rivalries between them are becoming increasingly entrenched.