GRA conference - Crime lords seek gunmen to kill gardaí

IN their frontline role against crime, gardaí are regularly subjected to vicious assaults by mindless thugs, but there is a far more sinister element at work when members of the force become the target of contract killings involving professional hit-men.

More redolent of a TV thriller than the changing face of Ireland, this alarming scenario came to light at the Garda Representative Association (GRA) conference in Westport, Co Mayo, amid claims that intelligence showed crime bosses were seeking contract killers to target certain gardaí.

Reportedly, hit-men have been approached to find out if they would be willing, for a €10,000 fee, to shoot gardaí or fire shots at their homes. And given the vicious nature of gangland feuds in which a growing number of fatal shootings has taken place in a spate of ongoing turf wars for control of the drugs trade, such claims cannot be lightly dismissed.