Courts allowed covert surveillance 69 times on criminal gangs

Gardaí were granted 51 court authorisations to conduct covert surveillance on criminal and dissident gangs in the year ending last July.

The Revenue Commissioners also got 18 permissions to conduct surveillance, primarily placing GPS tracking devices, on gangs.

The figures — rarely made public — appear in a review of surveillance powers by a High Court judge.

The development comes as various Garda operations turned up the heat yesterday on two major gangs involved in a murderous feud. Yesterday morning, gardaí from Dublin’s south inner city hit “middle and lower ranking” members of the Kinahan crime cartel, seizing more than €50,000 in cash, €20,000 worth of jewellery, and three GPS tracking devices.

It was the second operation against the cartel following Wednesday’s swoop on senior Kinahan figures, resulting in the seizure of around €1m of assets.

Meanwhile, gardaí conducted searches in Donegal linked with the seizure of three AK47s, suspected of being used by the rival Hutch gang in the murder of Kinahan lieutenant David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.