Mayor: City’s gangs will be first dealt with by new law

LIMERICK’S mayor is confident some of the city’s feuding criminals will be among the first brought before the Special Criminal Court under new anti-gang legislation.

Cllr Kevin Kiely is chairman of the city’s joint policing authority.

He said: “As mayor, I have asked the Garda Síochána that Limerick would be first out of the traps since this new legislation was introduced as it was murders such as those of Roy Collins, Shane Geoghegan and Brian Fitzgerald that led to the new law being introduced.

“I am confident that Limerick gang members will be the first to be dealt with by the new law.

“Extra resources have been drafted in from Dublin to tackle the feuding families and gardaí in Limerick are putting together a dossier on these families. It is only a matter of time before some people are brought before the Special Criminal Court, and I expect developments within the coming weeks.”

Mr Kiely continued: “I am told gardaí have a huge pool of information and files put together.”

Meanwhile, gardaí are continuing their investigations into the operations of a gang suspected of carrying out a spate of burglaries over the past number of weeks in Limerick city and county.

The gang mainly specialise in jewellery.

A number of arrests have been made since Thursday.

Searches, at several homes and locations, under Det Supt Jim Browne have led to the recovery of a number of vehicles stolen in the city recently.

Meanwhile, gardaí in Roxboro Road are still trawling through CCTV tapes from the new security camera system in Southill in their investigation into the vandalism of three of the district’s 25 camera units.

A dumper was used to knock two 30ft high camera poles and badly damage a third.

A local drugs gang are suspected of carrying out the attack.

The damaged cameras will cost more than €130,000 to restore in repair works that could take a number of weeks to complete.