Two rocket launchers seized from drug gang

TWO loaded rocket launchers have been seized from a major drug gang – an indication that the security threat posed by criminal gangs has risen to alarming new heights.

It is thought to be the first time a criminal gang has been caught in the possession of rocket launchers.

In April 2007, an undercover operation by British and Irish police foiled an attempt by the McCarthy-Dundon gang in Limerick to import rocket launchers.

Senior gardaí described yesterday’s find as “very frightening” and said it represented “a statement of intent” by organised crime.

Gardaí believe the rocket launchers – recovered from a haul containing an assault rifle, ammunition and 9kg of cocaine – belonged to one of the gangs involved in the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud. This gang – led by a crime figure now based in Spain – has been embroiled in a deadly feud with a rival Crumlin-Drimnagh gang, which has claimed some 16 lives in the past 10 years.

Officers are examining intelligence that the rocket launchers may have been intended for use against cash-in-transit vans or against the rival gang.

The discovery was made yesterday morning in a lock-up at a small industrial estate in the Straffan area of Co Kildare as part of an operation by the Organised Crime Unit (OCU).

On Wednesday, the OCU stopped a car on the Naas Road and recovered a kilo of cocaine, worth €70,000 on the street. They arrested the two occupants. Two more people were arrested in Rathcoole, south Dublin.

Two of the four are from Crumlin. A Garda source said they were “runners” for a senior lieutenant in one of the feuding gangs, led by a man now living in Spain.

The lieutenant, from Crumlin, recently left the country with his family for Spain.

A third person arrested is a foreigner. Gardaí suspect the Crumlin men were involved in a drug hand-over.

The OCU team traced the drugs to the lock-up in Longtown, Straffan. They recovered the drugs, the rocket launchers, an assault rifle and ammunition in barrels in the shed.

The cocaine has a street value of €630,000.

An army bomb-disposal team was dispatched to the scene. It is understood the launchers come loaded and can only be used once.

Garda sources there had been intelligence the gang had planned to get a group of the rival gang at a birthday party or in a restaurant and blow them up. There was also intelligence the rocket launchers were going to be used against cash-in-transit vans.