GARDAI are concerned that the IRA might be planning attacks on suspected drug dealers in Dublin under cover of the anti drugs campaigns in the city.
The concerns were heightened when gardai in north inner Dublin discovered three suspected IRA members from west Belfast travelling in a car driven by a republican figure from west Dublin.
No weapons were found in the car and the men were allowed to go after identifying themselves. The incident happened two weeks ago but details did not emerge at the time.
The Dublin republican, who was driving the car, had attended an anti drugs meeting in a local community centre earlier in the evening. The three Belfast men have no known connections with north inner Dublin and local gardai said they suspected they may have been brought into the city to carry out attacks.
Meanwhile, gardai in the north inner city are looking for six men who broke into the home of a heroin addict and beat him with baseball bats early yesterday.
The victim, who was arrested three weeks ago by gardai from the Divisional Drugs Unit attached to Store Street station, suffered severe head, arm and leg injuries and required hospital treatment.
The attack took place at the Lourdes flats complex, in Gloucester Place, where the victim lives with his wife, who was said to be shocked but unhurt.
The six men, who were wearing balaclavas, smashed down the door of the second floor flat at around 2.30 a.m. yesterday. Before leaving they smashed a television and video machine and broke furniture and windows.
In May, a south inner Dublin heroin addict and AIDS sufferer, Mr Josie Dwyer, was beaten to death by a mob led by two IRA figures from the Liberties area.
There was no indication yesterday that the IRA was involved in the attack on the man in the Lourdes flats complex.
The IRA has shot dead eight men suspected of involvement in the drugs trade in Belfast since 1994, using the cover name Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD). It has also carried out, dozens of serious beatings of people suspected of minor involvement in drugs in Belfast, where there is no serious trade in heroin.
The Belfast IRA beatings are invariably carried out by men in balaclavas using baseball bats.