Limerick drugs gangs made a 'business decision' to stop killing
The First Brigade of the Corp of Engineers assisted by the Infantry searching wasteland near Delmege Park,Moyross, Limerick City
A 'business decision' taken by rival gangs in Limerick to cease shooting one another may have led onlookers to believe the city's criminal gangs had gone to ground, but Wednesday's multi-agency sting operation involving more than 300 gardaí made it clear that, while the gangs have crept into the shadows, they continue to make vast profits.
Gardaí must be applauded for restoring peace by targeting the city’s most notorious organised crime gangs (OCG), the Dundons.
With the help of those closest to the gang leaders, gardaí defeated the family drugs cartel, led by brothers Wayne and John Dundon.
Several sub gangs have emerged below these, led by a new generation of drug dealers, who drug workers report are flooding the mid west with crack cocaine.
In July 2020, in response to a surge in the sale and supply of drugs, Limerick gardaí launched 'Operation Coronation', specifically targeting the Keane/Collopy OCG.
A series of coordinated raids yielding almost €700,000 worth of cash, monies in financial accounts, cars, jewellery, drugs, designer clothing, the deeds to a property in Dubai, and guns.
However, Wednesday’s raids on 65 properties and lands in Moyross broadened that focus out to include also the McCarthy Ryan OCG, resulting in the seizure of €145,000 in cash, and €421,000 in financial accounts.
Five designer watches, three high-powered vehicles, a €50,000 stallion, nine other horses, and €10,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis herb were also seized by gardaí.
Garda sources have said the Keane-Collopy gang have been operating separately for the past 12 months, although gardaí do not believe there has been a split in the camp.
A “business decision” was made between rivals to cease murdering one another, as it brought too much attention from politicians, gardaí, and ordinary members of the public who were drawn into the feud, often with tragic outcomes.
“It was bad for business, they have learned from the mistakes of the past by others who lived and died by the gun,” said a source.
Wayne Dundon is serving life after he was convicted of ordering the murder of innocent businessman Roy Collins in 2009, after the Collins family gave evidence against Dundon which led to him being jailed.
John Dundon received the mandatory life sentence after innocent rugby player Shane Geoghegan was gunned down in a case of mistaken identify.
Both murders brought unprecedented pressure on the gangs from gardaí.
The Collins family led thousands through the streets of Limerick in protest, drawing support from political circles, which led to the introduction of stronger anti-gangland legislation, which provided for holding gangland trials in the non-jury Special Criminal Court in order to stamp out intimidation of juries.
There were many other innocent victims of the gangs, including Seán Poland, a second-hand car dealer shot dead during a botched robbery at his home in Ardnacrusha, Co Clare; Noel Crawford, shot dead in a case of mistaken identity; Richard 'Happy' Kelly, who paid the ultimate price after he stole a car, which unbeknownst to him, contained a haul of cash and guns belonging to the Dundons.
Business has been brisk for those who have survived the feud and stayed out of reach of the gardaí.
The leaders of the Collopy gang, brothers Brian and Kieran Collopy, are due for release from prison later this year, having served most of an eight year sentence for possessing heroin.
A senior Garda source said they see no reason why the Collopy siblings would hand over control of their drugs empire when they are freed.
At the brothers sentencing hearing in 2016, presiding Judge Tom O’Donnell remarked, “The State considers both accused men to be top of the criminal pyramid in Limerick”.
Gardaí suspect the two masked gunmen who had strolled into the pub and fired off 15 rounds were Keane gang boss, Kieran Keane, and his associate Philip Collopy, a brother of Brian and Kieran.
Philip Collopy later accidentally shot himself in the head with a Glock pistol in 2009.
Brian Collopy’s son, Kenneth Collopy, is serving a life sentence for shooting dead innocent carpenter, Daniel Fitzgerald, in December 2009, in another case of mistaken identity.
Gardaí believe Eddie Ryan snr had effectively signed his own death warrant days before his killing, when he attempted to shoot Kieran Keane’s older brother Christy Keane, but the gun jammed.
In January 2003, in revenge for Ryan’s slaying, Kieran Keane was kidnapped, tortured, and shot in the head, and his body dumped on a road in Drombana, Co Limerick.
Keane’s nephew, Owen Treacy, who was in his uncle’s company at the time, was also kidnapped and stabbed 17 times.
Treacy survived, and his testimony against five members of the Dundon-McCarthy mob, including Wayne and John Dundon’s brother Dessie, saw the group jailed for life.
Meanwhile, following his brother’s slaying, Christy Keane, now 60, was considered the obvious choice to direct operations for the Keane gang from behind bars — at the time of Kieran’s killing, Christy was serving a ten-year sentence for possession of €240,000 worth of cannabis.
In 2009, just as Christy Keane was finishing his drugs sentence, his son Liam was beginning a ten-year sentence for possession of a loaded handgun.
Liam Keane gained notoriety in 2001 when he gave photographers a two-fingered salute on the grounds of the Central Criminal Court, after his trial for the murder of innocent teenager Eric Leamy collapsed, due to a number of key State witnesses saying they could not identify Leamy’s killer.
In 2015, in what was the latest attempt on his life, Christy Keane survived an attempt on his life when two gunmen approached his car on the grounds of the University of Limerick, fired a number of shots, hitting him six times.
“It’s kind of strange, but, it’s pretty much the same gangs involved in the drugs trade now as it was 20 years ago when the feud started, only the Dundons are in jail and there are a few new faces,” a source told the .
The last gangland murder in Limerick was 13 years ago, when Dundon McCarthy associate James Cronin, was found in a shallow grave at Ballinacurra Weston after the gang feared he might be a liability to their activities.
Convicted killer Nathan Killeen was due to face trial for Mr Cronin’s killing but the charge against him was later struck out when the DPP entered a “nolle prosequi” (no prosecution).
Most of the main players in Limerick gangland have been targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).
And, last March, Kieran Collopy, considered to have earned vast profits from selling heroin, lost his Council house in St Mary’s Park, after Limerick City and County Council successfully argued his drug-dealing activities were in breach of his tenancy agreement.
Brian Collopy’s home in Fedamore, Co Limerick, was seized by CAB.
Another brother, Jonathan Collopy, 34, was to be extradited to Bulgaria to serve an 18-month sentence after being convicted of drink-driving in his absence in 2016, despite complaining that he would receive “substandard” care for bad back pain while incarcerated in Sofia Prison, Bulgaria.
On the night Kieran Keane was murdered, he was lured to a trap, believing he would be handed his rivals from Kileely, Eddie Ryan jnr and his brother Kieran 'Rashers' Ryan, who at the time had been reported kidnapped.
Hours after Kieran Keane’s murder, the Ryan siblings walked into Portlaoise Garda Station announcing they were unhurt, yet they said they didn’t know where they had been.
The Ryan brothers were later jailed in 2010 for a total of 14 years for possession of a loaded gun, at Ballyneety, Co Limerick.
The Ryan’s cousin, convicted drug dealer, 'Fat' John McCarthy, Moyross, was recently released from prison after serving part of a 14-year sentence, later reduced to 12 years, for possession of heroin in 2012.
McCarthy survived an attempt on his life in a drive-by shooting in Moyross, in 2002, when two cousins Ross Cantillon, St Mary’s Park, and Roy Woodland, Canon Breen Park, fired 11 rounds from a Kalashnikov at him.
Woodland’s leg had been amputated after he was shot in a unrelated attack, and stabbed in the head. Cantillon had suffered two perforated lungs in another stabbing incident connected to the feud.
The Ryan brothers' uncle, John Ryan, was shot dead as he laid a patio in front of a house in Thomondgate, in July 2003, as revenge for Kieran Keane’s slaying five months earlier.
With a staggering 103 shootings in 2007, Limerick at the time accounted for a third of all shooting incidents in the State. However, in recent years there have been few if any gun-related attacks after gardaí toppled the Dundon gang.
Limerick has emerged from the shadow of the gunmen. New investment opportunities, cultural festivals, pedestrianisation plans, and a resurgence of Limerick’s All-Ireland hurling glory days, have all helped transform the the city into a feel-good, modern, cosmopolitan, European city-break holiday destination.
However, beneath the sheen lies a toxic underbelly which security sources warn could erupt again without warning.
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