Gardaí to 'strike at heart' of Dublin criminal gangs

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has announced a €6.5 million Garda operation designed to tackle Dublin's rising gun-crime rates.

There have been at least eight murders involving guns so far this year, most of them gang-related.

The Minister told the Dáil this afternoon he had agreed with the Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy to roll out "Operation Anvil", which would "strike at the heart" of Dublin's growing gun culture.

This will be funded by an allocation off funds from the Department of Justice budget. The money will go towards paying for 15,000 hours of additional Garda overtime in Dublin each week.

"A feature of the gun culture which has emerged is the apparent belief on the part of some criminals that they are not bound by or subject to the laws of the land," Mr McDowell said.

"Operation Anvil is intended to supplement existing operations so as to ensure that lawlessness does not prevail, that the threat which these criminals pose is met sternly and effectively, and, above all, that human life is respected.

Mr McDowell said there were between 15 and 30 armed criminal gangs operating in the Republic at the moment, among them a number of former paramilitaries who have turned to common criminality. "There are many former so-called 'patriots' who have now taken to the most appalling thuggery to enrich themselves," he said.

The Garda said in a statement the primary focus of this operation is "extensive additional overt patrolling and static checkpoints by uniform mobile and foot patrols, supported by armed plain-clothes patrols". In addition, "intelligence-driven covert operations are also being undertaken involving Dublin units and national Garda investigative units".

The operation would be "focused, sustained, targeted and relentless" and show criminals that "nobody is above the law", Mr McDowell told the Dáil.

He also announced a number of proposed amendments to the Criminal Justice Amendment Act, including measures to introduce minimum sentences for membership of armed gangs and modifying shotguns.

Labour justice spokesman Joe Costello described the measure as a "belated response" to the problem. He said the gardaí would be "back to square one" when the €6.5 million is spent.

Fine Gael's Jim O'Keeffe said the recent spate of robberies involving the taking of hostages were of serious concern. "I think we should mark our revulsion at whole notion of hostage-taking by marking it out as a separate offence."

The Minister said false imprisonment already carried a possible life sentence.

The last major Garda anti-gang offensive, "Operation Crossover", was carried out last December in north-west Dublin.