‘14-year-olds holding guns, drugs to ingratiate themselves with gangs’
Chief Superintendent Gerry Phillips said some of these children were doing this to “ingratiate themselves with gang leaders”. The top garda said a high-profile armed operation, code-named Hybrid, set up to combat gangland crime in north Dublin, had come across a number of such incidents. “We have seized guns and cannabis, including €1.5 million of cannabis last week, and made arrests,” he said.
“A number of guns have been seized, even young people who are holding guns for other criminals.
“We have got information and have seized those guns and have seized drugs again being held by younger people for seasoned criminals.” He said some of the juveniles have been “as young as 14”.
Chief Supt Phillips, who is in charge of the Dublin Northern Division, said they are holding guns and drugs for different reasons: “Sometimes they are a very junior member just holding the gun to ingratiate themselves with gang leaders.” He said Operation Hybrid, which involves highly armed members of the Emergency Response Unit, was set up in response to four murders, two gangland, in north Dublin so far this year. Chief Supt Phillips made appeals yesterday in relation to the four murders: the gangland murder of JP Joyce on January 7; the fatal stabbing of Good Samaritan Warren O’Connor on January 16; the shooting dead of Noel Deans on January 17; and the murder of baby Johnny McCarthy on January 8.
The victims in the first three murders were from the Coolock area. Chief Supt Phillips said they had identified the three people who pursued Mr O’Connor and killed him. He said they had also identified a fourth person who helped them get away.
He said gardaí had attempted to interview one of the four afterwards but were unsuccessful. He said they were building their case and had “very good intelligence”, but needed to convert that into evidence. He said there was a “marked lack of cooperation” from people and appealed to them, and the suspects, to come forward.
The senior garda said they had a “lot of intelligence” about the murder of drug trafficker JP Joyce, but said they expected it to be a “long drawn out investigation”. He said gardaí had canvassed 200 houses and pursued 276 jobs, or lines of inquiry. Gardaí suspect the gun attack is linked to the shooting dead of JP’s brother, Tommy, last year. Tommy was gunned down by a rival local gang.
Chief Supt Phillips said they were pursuing a “number of lines of inquiry” in relation to Deans’ murder. He said gardaí were in the process of contacting the 350 people who were in the Priorswood Inn, the pub where the victim had spent a number of hours before his death. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666 111.
