Four arrested in dawn raid as gardaí find €30,000 drugs haul in graveyard

THREE women and a man were being held by Limerick gardaí last night in connection with the abduction of a girl which sparked a gang murder on December 18 last.

During searches, cocaine and cannabis with a street value of over €30,000 was also found in a cemetery near Garryowen.

The four were held following early morning raids in the Garryowen area.

Noel Crawford, 40, was shot by a gunman outside his mother’s home in Southill.

Gardaí believe the gunman went there to kill his brother, Paul Crawford, who is connected to the McCarthy Dundon gang.

Noel Crawford, who was out celebrating his 40th birthday, had no gang involvement and was a respected security man in a major store.

It is believed the Keane Collopy gang ordered an attack on Paul Crawford on learning that the teenage daughter of an associate had been abducted in the city. The girl was released unharmed.

Armed detectives from the Roxboro Road crime unit under Detective Inspector Jim Ryan and Detective Sergeant Tom O’Connor carried out yesterday’s raids shortly after 7am.

They were backed by members of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, uniformed gardaí and the garda dog unit, in an operation involving up to 40 gardaí.

Along with the drugs, gardaí also discovered a large quantity of handgun ammunition. The four being held are aged between 17 and 38.

They were being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act at Roxboro Road, Henry Street, Mayorstone and Bruff garda stations.

Paul Crawford was recently jailed at Limerick district court for threatening a woman in Southill, and previously claimed a gang who wanted him dead had put a price on his head.

There have been a number of gun attacks on the family home. In one, Crawford’s five-year-old nephew Jordan was hit by a bullet.

In another attack, several women sitting in the front sitting room had a lucky escape when the home was riddled with machine gun fire.