Gang thought to have planted device

GARDAÍ believe a drug gang involved in intimidating residents of a Dublin flats complex planted a suspect device under a local community worker’s wife’s car.

The targeting of the man’s wife has shocked locals and some fear the attack may set back recent improvements in the area.

Gardaí said the device turned out to be a can of shaving cream wrapped in a sock with some wires protruding out of it.

Detectives suspect the action may be in retaliation to a significant drop in profits from drug dealing because the gang has been forced to operate outside the flats.

The spotlight was thrown on Dolphin House complex in April and May after gardaí began a heavy uniformed presence in the sprawling estate to combat dealing.

Towards the end of April, the gang retaliated and over the course of one night damaged 29 cars and sprayed graffiti warning the community and local gardaí.

At a subsequent community meeting, there was a bomb scare and a minor public order incident involving gang members and gardaí.

The continuing Garda presence and the success of the local drugs unit forced the gang to operate elsewhere, including out of a house at the edge of the complex and along a nearby stretch of the Grand Canal.

Superintendent Thady Muldoon, of Kevin Street Garda Station, said the suspect device was found in the vicinity of a car belonging to the wife of a local development worker.

Supt Muldoon said it was a “very serious matter” for those targeted. He said the local gang was most likely behind the incident.

“It’s a message saying ‘we haven’t gone away’,” he said.

Local sources in Dolphin House said the street dealers are under “pressure” from their bosses because of falling profits. They said the gang bosses are, in turn, under pressure from their suppliers and may owe them money.