ANALYSIS:Limerick gardaí have slashed gun crime but some drugs gangs remain undeterred, writes CONOR LALLY
THE DISCOVERY of the body of Lee Slattery just a few hundred yards from Limerick’s busy Moyross housing estate marks another chapter in the barbarism of the Republic’s drugs trade.
The fact that Mr Slattery’s father found his son’s remains, shot in the head and dumped in a shallow grave, is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions.
Despite the recent successes of gardaí in Limerick and the extra policing resources committed to the city, a small number of gangland criminals there seem undeterred. The events of the last few weeks underline the depth of the challenges still facing Limerick gardaí.
Last Monday week 20-year-old Limerick man Daniel Philips survived being shot in the head as he drove his car in the St John’s Square area of the city.
The victim, from the Ballinacurra Weston area of the city, remains in a critical condition in hospital. gardaí believe the shooting was carried out by criminals involved in the main gangland feud in Limerick.
Last Wednesday gardaí believe they foiled a revenge attack for the Philips shooting when they arrested three men and a woman in car at Drombana, just outside Limerick. A 9mm handgun and ammunition were found in the car.
The suspects’ car was rammed by a vehicle driven by members of the Emergency Response Unit, whose personnel are now deployed permanently in Limerick.
On Monday, May 10th, a 27-year-old man from St Mary’s Park who was shot and injured in January was targeted again in what gardaí believe was a feud-related murder attempt. He survived again, sustaining only minor pellet wounds from a shotgun blast fired at him from a car at Cathedral Place in the centre of the city.
Gardaí believe that attempted murder is feud-related and linked to both the shooting of Daniel Philips and the gun find in Drombana.
The Garda response to the recent incidents has been swift and driven by what appears to be accurate intelligence.
Detectives investigating the shooting of Daniel Philips have already charged one person with possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Of the four people arrested last Wednesday in connection with the discovery of the handgun in Drombana, three have already been charged before the courts.
Three people have been arrested in relation to the murder attempt in Cathedral Place earlier this month and that investigation is said to be progressing well.
Before the discovery of Lee Slattery’s body on Monday afternoon, the only man to have died in a gun attack in Limerick this year was 35-year-old father of two Daniel Treacy. A man has been charged with that murder.
Long-term crime trends released by the CSO earlier this year showed gun crime – possession of a firearm and discharge of a firearm – fell by one-third in the Limerick division in 2008, the largest fall in the State. In the first nine months of last year – the most recent period for which full comparative figures are available – possession or discharge of a firearm fell by a further third in the Limerick division, to 45 cases.
Like 2008, this fall was the largest decline in gun crime for any Garda division in the country.
The release from prison in recent months of a number of key gangland figures involved in the Limerick feud prompted Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy to deploy members of the ERU to the city on a permanent basis for the foreseeable future.
Even before their arrival, local gardaí in the city were clearly enjoying considerable success against the main gangs. The problem for the Garda is that the disadvantaged Limerick housing estates are continuing to spew out a seemingly endless supply of young men willing to engage in gun violence and drug dealing.