Pubdate: Sun, 20 Jul 2008
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2008 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Henry McDonald, Ireland editor

GANGS HAVE MADE DUBLIN 'LIKE CHICAGO IN THE 1920S'

Gangland wars have turned Dublin into the Chicago of the 21st 
century, a TD and chairman of a drugs task force in the Irish capital 
said last night.

Labour TD Joe Costello also revealed that a preliminary study by the 
Inner City Drugs Task Force has found that a majority of drug dealers 
arrested on serious offences were out on bail.

Costello made his remarks following two more gangland-related murders 
in north Dublin this weekend. Gardai have launched a murder 
investigation following the fatal shooting of a 33-year-old man in 
Finglas early yesterday. The victim was named as Trevor Walsh, from 
Valley Park Road in Finglas. He had been serving a three-year prison 
sentence for possession of firearms, but was let out on temporary 
release on Thursday.

The attack, which happened at about 12.20am outside a house on the 
Kippure Park estate, was the second fatal shooting in the capital in 24 hours.

A gunman approached the victim outside a house in the estate and shot 
him in the neck and chest, before fleeing the scene on a bicycle. It 
is understood that the killer used an automatic pistol. Walsh was 
taken to Blanchardstown Hospital, but was pronounced dead at 1am.

The victim was associated with the late John Daly, a Dublin criminal 
who was shot dead last October. Walsh had been a member of a gang 
which specialised in importing drugs and armed robberies in the city.

It is not clear whether yesterday morning's attack was connected to 
the shooting of a man in Coolock, north Dublin, on Friday afternoon. 
The man, named locally as 34-year-old Anthony Foster, was killed with 
a shotgun as he left a top-floor apartment at Cromcastle Court. 
Commenting on the latest gang-related shooting, Costello, who 
represents inner-city Dublin in the Dail, said there was no coherent 
plan to counter the rising number of killings.

'Dublin now resembles Chicago in the Roaring Twenties, when the 
gangsters were out of control,' he said. 'There is no joined-up 
strategy to fight these gangs, either at a national or international 
level. All of our drugs are imported, mostly by sea along Ireland's 
coastline, yet we have no proper network with our fellow Europeans to 
patrol the seaboard. We don't have enough boats, planes or 
helicopters to intercept the smuggling networks,' he said.

Over the last three years there have been more than a dozen killings 
in north Dublin alone related to rival drugs gangs. Costello added 
that, while the Irish government talks tough in regard to Ireland's 
gangland wars, the system remained loaded in the criminals' favour. 
'We have found that the overwhelming majority of people arrested on 
serious drug offences almost all get bail and are back on the 
streets. The turf wars over who controls drug supplies in certain 
parts of Dublin have been fuelled by the easy availability of 
firearms and now explosives.'

Costello said the expertise of retired republican paramilitaries had 
been harnessed to arm and train the city's criminal gangs.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart