Drugs trade sparks rise in gun crime

COCAINE-DEALING by young criminals has led to an upsurge in gun crime across Dublin, according to gardaí.

The young dealers are feeding the market for cocaine in the capital, the use of which is rising at a phenomenal rate.

Many of these youngsters, some still teenagers, are also heavy cocaine-users. With access to guns, this makes for a lethal combination.

This has given rise to a dangerous recklessness, which was graphically illustrated on Saturday night when a garda patrol car came under fire.

The unmarked vehicle was hit by two shots from a pump-action shotgun. The two people arrested following the incident, who were still being questioned last night, were aged 18 and 22.

Shooting at a garda car may have been beyond the pale for an earlier generation of criminals, but not the new one.

Many of the younger criminals have graduated from joyriding and burglary in their teens to crimes such as drug-dealing. Their reckless attitude has been honed by potentially lethal games of “chicken” with garda patrol cars. Shooting at them would not seem such a big deal.

Gang leaders have fast-tracked their way to the top of the drug-dealing profession at the tender ages of 20 or 21. One is even nicknamed “Babyface,” but few of his lackeys could be described as weather-beaten. Their rapid rise has been marked by violence. There have been a number of shootings linked to young gangs in both the north and south inner city. But they are a scattered bunch and gardaí do not believe all the recent killings can be traced back to one particular feud.

But there is a belief that many of them have been carried out on the orders of various, extremely young gang members. And the targets appear to be older criminals.

The family of Ray Salinger denies he was involved in any criminal activity, despite garda sources suggesting he was embroiled at some point in the drugs trade. The 40-year-old was sitting in Farrell’s pub on Clanbrassil Street in the southside when two men walked in with a handgun, fired a number of shots at him and fled.

He was hit in the head and chest and taken to nearby St James’s Hospital, where he died shortly afterwards.

Witnesses described the gunmen as two youngsters.

Late last year, a reasonably large amount of cocaine was discovered at an apartment in the northside. It was a significant but not hugely remarkable find.

But a handgun, ammunition and about six or seven balaclavas, the tools of the trade of one gang, headed by a particularly ruthless young man in his early 20s, were linked to the coke find by garda sources.