Nine homes searched in gangland killings probe
The raids were carried out as detectives continued to question a man in connection with the fatal shooting of Noel Roche on Tuesday night.
Roche’s death was the seventh fatality linked to a feud between two gangs in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas in the last five years.
A special garda squad, called Operation Steel, was established on Wednesday to combat the rise of gangland crime.
The unit, made up of 50 experienced detectives, carried out searches on 18 addresses linked to gang members in Crumlin and Drimnagh on Thursday. This was followed by a further nine searches yesterday. Officers said nothing significant was found in the raids.
Local gardaí assisted in the searches, which were backed up by the elite Emergency Response Unit and the Air Support Unit.
Detectives arrested a man in relation to the death of Roche on Thursday after he gave himself up to gardaí.
The arrested man is 32 years old, from Drimnagh, and was the driver of a car which was ambushed in Clontarf, north Dublin, by members of the rival gang.
His criminal colleague, Roche, aged 27, and from Crumlin, died in the shooting, but he managed to escape.
Following repeated appeals by Chief Supt Peter Maguire of Raheny Garda Station, the man approached his solicitors and agreed to hand himself in to gardaí.
He was arrested and detained under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act on suspicion of allegedly withholding information about the shooting.
The murder of Roche was in retaliation for the double murder of two men who were members of the rival gang in Firhouse, south Dublin, last Sunday.
Darren Geoghegan, 26, from Drimnagh, and Gavin Byrne, 30, from Crumlin, were shot dead by two attackers.
Garda ballistic and technical experts continued examinations on cars used by attackers in both Tuesday’s and Sunday’s shootings.
Firearms used in both murders were recovered in the cars but were severely burnt.
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