Gardaí enjoy 'sustained level of success' against crime gangs 

Policing authority boss Bob Collins said gangs like the Kinahan cartel are a  'genuine threat' and absolutely reckless in 'sucking' children into criminal activity

The Policing Authority says it has been struck by the “sustained level of success” gardaí have had against organised crime this year, including against the Kinahan cartel. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The Policing Authority says it has been struck by the “sustained level of success” gardaí have had against organised crime this year, including against the Kinahan cartel.

Authority Chairman Bob Collins said these gangs were a “genuine threat” to the safety and wellbeing not just of individuals caught up but of entire communities affected by their activities.

The #PolicingAuthority today published its Review of 2020. It is an overview of the breadth and depth of the work undertaken, highlights key areas of focus for oversight and provides data relating to senior Garda appointments, fieldwork and engagement. pic.twitter.com/aZuPfmpew5

— Policing Authority (@PolicingAuthIRL) December 22, 2020

Commenting on the authority's review of 2020, he said these gangs were “sucking in” children, with “extraordinary consequences” for them.

He said the “starkness of this reality” was highlighted on a number of occasions this year.

 Keane Mulready-Woods, 17 from Drogheda, whose remains were found in Dublin. Detectives launched an investigation after human body parts were found in a sports bag in Coolook, north Dublin.

This includes the murder and dismemberment of 17-year-old Drogheda youth, Keane Mulready Woods, last January.

A number of reports during the year have also underlined the scale of this problem, while some evaluations have highlighted the success certain projects were having in addressing it.

Mr Collins said: “In relation to organised crime, it has been striking that there has been a sustained level of success in terms of the bringing of prosecutions and their successful completion through the courts.

“It says something about the determination and commitment, about the investigative capacity, about the professional ability and about the recognition that organised crime is more than some sort of ill-directed syndicate of self-interested people — that it is a genuine threat to the safety and wellbeing of individuals and communities and that it can and does put communities at risk and make it very difficult for people to live their lives as they would wish to live them.”

 He said that it was “extraordinary” that side-by-side with policing the Covid pandemic that the work of disrupting gangs and seizing drugs, money and firearms, was continuing apace.

He said criminal gangs were absolutely reckless in “sucking” children into criminal activity.

This has extraordinary consequences for the individuals and putting the individuals at enormous risk and using the individual children as leverage in relation to their families —  it is dangerous, it is obscene, it is utterly amoral

 He said it was important the authority engaged with the Gardaí on this and would be doing so more in 2021.

Authority chief executive Helen Hall said this issue had been brought home to members during extensive outreach they conducted this year as part of their work around examining Garda performance around Covid-19.

This includes the “debts and obligations” young people embroiled in gangs and drugs find themselves in.

 Helen Hall, Chief Executive of the Policing Authority.

She said it was a challenge to the gardaí and the authority to support affected communities to feel safer, but said this was not just a policing issue and that a lot of prevention work had to take place.

She cited the potential in the forthcoming Policing and Community Safety Bill — a key piece of legislation aimed at implementing recommendations in the 2018 Policing Commission report.

She said she was very optimistic about the bill if it was “taken seriously” by all the relevant agencies — including education, health, the Gardai, social workers and Tusla.

She said there was “momentum” behind this bill and said it was an issue that the authority would be “pressing” next year.

Mr Collins said they were also pursuing matters relating to sexual violence and detection rates in 2021.

He said they had begun this process in 2020 and said the rollout of Protective Services Units — specifically tasked with investigating sexual and domestic violence cases — across every garda division was potentially of “great significance”.