Garda fight against feuding gangs will be ‘long and hard’
Chief supt Willie Keane spelled out the huge resources now being deployed to target the feuding gangs when he addressed the city’s joint policing committee.
The meeting was attended by four of the city’s five TDs, with defence minister Willie O’Dea absent.
Members of the city council, Brendan Kenny of the regeneration agency along representatives of the HSE and the department of education were also present.
Chief supt Keane outlined the changing nature of the ongoing feud with young vulnerable children now being lured into the ranks of criminal gangs.
Supt Keane said: “When children become violent it becomes a policing issue. Policing has to be the last resort when dealing with children. Unfortunately we have children as young as 14 now charged with serious offences involving fire arms.”
Children, he said, with poor or no parenting are falling out of school and see organised gangs as like family.
He said: “They see these gangs as giving them status. We have to break the cycle.”
The feud he said did not start overnight and it will be a long process in tackling it.
Referring to two feud murders in the city in recent weeks he said: “The resent feuding has been heightened because of the release of some people from prison.”
Supt Keane said two full time gardaí are now profiling the assets of gang members.
Information they gather is passed on to the criminal assets bureau who have recently launched a renewed campaign against Limerick criminals.
The city’s gun culture was further emphasised with the discovery of four guns, including a rifle and hand guns over the weekend.
One man appeared at Limerick district court yesterday charged with possession of a hand gun in the city centre at 4.45am on Sunday morning.
It is estimated that up to 25% of illegal discharge of firearms in the state occur in Limerick city.
Det supt Jim Browne told the joint policing meeting that in 2007 gardaí carried out more than 600 raids with search warrants for arms and 75 guns were found.
To date in 2008 up to 20 guns have been seized.
Det supt Browne said that 55 people involved in the feud are now in prison serving sentences or awaiting trial.
Huge amounts of heroin are being brought into Limerick and Det supt Browne said drugs were driving the feud.
Last year drugs with a value of €1.7 million were seized. This year seizures of €1.5 million have already occurred.
Gardaí have already carried out almost 700 drugs searches in the city since January.
Supt Frank O’Brien told the meeting that providing escorts for prisoners being brought to and from the courts means that on any one day he has to deploy up to 20 gardaí at Roxboro road on this duty.
Inspector John O’Reilly of Henry Street said there had been a 25% drop in shop lifting in the city centre since the start of the year and this was due to extra patrols on the streets.
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