29 drug dealers arrested in major sting

At least 29 drug dealers have been arrested and charged following a four-month operation involving undercover gardaí posing as addicts.

The investigation was set up as a result of complaints from locals of drug-dealing in public parks in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas of south-west Dublin.

The operation targeted street dealers and suppliers the next rung up the ladder.

Code-named Trident, the operation was devised by local detectives in conjunction with the Test Purchase Unit, attached to the Garda National Drugs Unit.

Specialist detectives from the unit, posing as addicts, worked with local detectives, including those from the Crumlin Drug Unit, who identified the targets.

Over recent months, undercover officers approached the street dealers and made repeat purchases from the dealers identified.

In the last three days, the operation moved into an arrest phase. Some 30 homes in the areas were hit and 29 people arrested. They were charged and will appear in court next month.

Gardaí said the dealers hit are independent operators but their drugs would have been supplied by a major crime boss, the leader of one of two local gangs involved in one of the worst feuds in the country.

It is understood a man in his late 50s, related to the gang boss, was among those arrested. A young victim of a gun attack was also arrested along with a number of juveniles.

Meanwhile, in the same Dublin South Garda Division, detectives in Tallaght suspect three recent shootings — which left one man dead, one clinging to life, and another seriously injured — may all be linked.

Convicted criminal Karl Wynne, clinging to life, had been identified as a suspect for the shooting of a bodybuilder in north Dublin on May 14. Officers believe Wynne was shot in Tallaght last Thursday week either by associates of the bodybuilder or by the crime boss who hired the gunman.

Gardaí are also investigating the possibility Wynne shot dead Alan Desmond, whose body was found by children in a field in Killinarden on May 18.

Detectives had suspected Desmond, aged 38, was working for Wynne but now believe Desmond was the boss and planned armed robberies and other jobs for Wynne.

They suspect Wynne, who was “completely out of control” in recent months, may have murdered Desmond over a dispute.