Two key criminals arrested after high-speed chase

DETECTIVES arrested two top Dublin criminals following a high-speed car chase during which the gangsters opened fire at them.

The two plain clothes officers escaped injury when the gunmen fired out from their car as they sped through Crumlin village in south Dublin late on Saturday night.

Garda management are concerned at the shooting as it, yet again, highlights the ruthlessness and recklessness of gangs in Dublin, and in Limerick, who are willing to kill gardaí and civilians if they consider it necessary.

The two men, both senior figures in a notorious gang involved in the bloody Crumlin-Drimnagh feud, were arrested after shots were fired into a house on Keeper Road in Drimnagh. No one was injured in that shooting.

Gardaí believe they targeted the wrong house and the occupants are completely innocent.

“These are quality prisoners,” said a Garda source. “They are senior players in one of the gangs and one of them in particular is one of the main men in that gang.”

This individual is 31 years old and from the Kilworth Road area of Drimnagh. The second man is aged 24 and from Crumlin, but is living in Ballyfermot. A number of people close to him have been shot dead in the feud, which has claimed at least 11 lives. The younger man is an active player in a so-called “second generation” feud in the area, which is not directly related with the main feud.

Gardaí said that 10 houses in Crumlin and Drimnagh have been shot at in the past six weeks, most of them connected with the minor feud. There have also been arson attacks and incidents of serious criminal damage.

Gardaí were alerted at 11.25pm to a shooting on Keeper Road and told that the shots were fired from a “large black car”. Detectives from Crumlin Garda Station were driving down Windmill Road when a car fitting the description was driving at speed towards it. They turned around and followed it through Crumlin village, up Bunting Road towards Walkinstown.

Garda sources said the detectives were right on top of the gunmen, one of whom fired at least one shot back at them, missing the car.

The black Audi hit a high concrete ramp on the road at speed near the Kestrel pub at the Walkinstown roundabout, shattering a front and back wheel.

The gangsters careered onto St Peter’s Road and one of them threw a gun into a car park near the Cherry Tree pub.

The car came to a halt about a hundred yards on and the criminals jumped out, but were caught and arrested by the detectives. The arrests took place at 11.40pm.

The gun, a pistol, was recovered, fully loaded, with one round up the breech, ready to be fired.

The firearm is undergoing DNA, fingerprint and ballistic evidence. The two men were arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. Gardaí were expected to extend their detention period last night and seek direction from the DPP today regarding possible charges.

In September 2006, Sergeant Mark Clarke escaped with his life when he was shot at close range with a sawn-off shotgun in Crumlin by criminals.