Gardaí: Gang violence will get worse

Frontline gardaí predict the unprecedented violence on the streets of Dublin “will only get worse” and fear for the lives of unarmed gardaí responding to the shootings.

Detectives believe the Kinahan crime cartel are using around five two- or three-man groups in the north inner city in their murderous onslaught on the Hutch gang.

They believe lieutenants of the cartel on the southside, and their bosses abroad, are “pulling the strings” and getting guns for hire in the north inner city to “shoot their neighbours”.

And senior gardaí have claimed that key legislation criminalising participation in an organised crime gang is “bordering on useless” — with less than a handful of convictions in six years.

It came as Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin called for full implementation of these laws against gangs who were “really challenging the State”.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced he was setting up a “task force” for the north inner city before meeting Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan last night to discuss the escalation in the Kinahan-Hutch feud.

The Garda Representative Association claimed the gangland murders were a “direct result” of Garda cuts and called for accelerated recruitment to the force.

“It’s unprecedented [the feud violence], six people murdered in 100 days,” GRA president Ciarán O’Neill told the Irish Examiner.

“The murders are not restricted to night-time, they are happening day and night.”

And he said: “I think the situation will only get worse. Without more resources and more people on the street, the situation can only get worse.”

He said the gunmen had “no fear” of gardaí and said there had been a checkpoint close to where Gareth Hutch, a father of a six-year-old boy, was shot dead on Tuesday morning.

“They have no regard, or respect, for members of An Garda Síochána,” he said.

Asked was he concerned for the safety of members, he said “absolutely” and added: “If a guard came onto the scene yesterday or the Regency we could be looking at another fatality of a garda. Hopefully, that will not happen.”

He said the number of gardaí in the Dublin North Central Division was down 140.

“The recent gangland killings can be seen as being a direct result of under-investment in An Garda Síochána over the last number of years,” he claimed.

Responding to the comments made by the Taoiseach in the Dáil yesterday, he said he would like to see “less talk and more action” while John Jacob of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors described the comments as “rhetoric”.

Mr Kenny told the Dáil the Government would not be “intimidated” by gangs and he was setting up a task force to deal with local issues.

“It’s very distressing when I read of the lockdown of schools and the fear or parents that something is going to happen to their children,” he said.

He said what made the feud different was that there was an “international aspect” where murders were being ordered from abroad.

Mr Martin called for the “full implementation” of the Criminal Justice Act 2009 which made participation in, or direction of, a criminal organisation an offence.

Several Garda sources told the Irish Examiner the laws were very weak.

“That legislation is bordering on useless,” said one senior garda.

While significant numbers have been arrested under the legislation — 259 up until May 2015, there have been less than a handful of convictions in the last six years.

“The number of arrests is all very good, but the key test is prosecutions and convictions,” the garda said.

Speaking last night, Mr Martin said the wave of murders “trumps everything else” the gardaí and the commissioner had to deal with and said “criminal gangs, the drug dealers are really challenging the State”.