THE NUMBER of explosive devices, including pipe bombs, dealt with by the Army and Garda has increased significantly this year.
While there was a sharp and sustained increase four years ago in the number of pipe bombs and other devices being used, mostly by gangland figures, the situation has worsened further in 2011.
If trends in the first eight months continue to the end of the year, the number of call-outs for the Army’s bomb disposal experts will have passed 200 for the first time, a doubling of the rates seen as recently as 2007.
New figures obtained from security sources also show a record number of the devices have exploded this year, rather then being elaborate hoaxes planted to scare those targeted.
The Army’s bomb disposal teams have since the start of the year been required to conduct “post-blast analysis” on 14 occasions.
This occurs when a device explodes and the scene is examined by blast experts to try to determine how the device was constructed, how powerful it was and the nature of the explosives used.
While 14 such examinations have been required so far this year, the previous highest was in 2009 when 10 devices exploded. In 2007 there were six post-blast examinations required, three in 2008 and six last year.
A Garda source said gangs were now planting pipe bombs and other devices outside the homes of rivals or people who owed them money, usually for drugs.
“It’s a way for the gangs to tell people ‘we know where you live and we can get you’,” he said.
Another source said criminals believed there was relatively little risk in planting a hoax device as a threat.
“If it’s hoax, it’s not going to go off and blow them up and it’s also less dangerous than doing a drive-by shooting from the point of view of being caught.”
The latest incident in which a device exploded occurred last Tuesday morning when a man was injured as a booby-trap pipe bomb blew up when he opened the door of his house in Navan, Co Meath.
The target, Paddy Dixon (48), who is originally from Blanchardstown in west Dublin, previously supplied information to the Garda about the Real IRA in the 1990s.
Gardaí believe the bomb that was left at his house was linked to his time as an informer.
In an unrelated case, an improvised explosive device was made safe in Tallaght, west Dublin, early on Wednesday.
While the Garda and Army are called to examine explosive devices – both viable and hoax – in a smaller number of cases they also examine and remove chemicals that have become unstable and old munitions that lay undiscovered for years.
All of these tasks combined have seen the Army bomb disposal team called out 161 times this year. If current trends continue, the call-out rate will exceed 200 by the end of the year for the first time ever.
In 2007 there were 98 call-outs for the Army bomb experts. However, the following year a number of criminal gangs became involved in feuding with dissident republican groups after extortion demands were made on the crime gangs.
There followed a number of attacks in which pipe bombs and hand grenades were used to threaten the gangs.
While that feud has been quieter in recent years, it effectively ushered in a culture in which criminal gangs started targeting each other using viable and hoax devices.
The Army bomb disposal team call-out rate jumped from 98 cases in 2007 to 180 in 2008.
In 2009 those activities continued, with the Army called out 196 times, and 198 times last year. To date in 2011 the call out rate has reached 161.