Organised crime - Co-operation pays off in war on crime

MOST of us are lucky enough to have the luxury of being blase about the latest gangland atrocity or drug smuggling operation uncovered by the gardaí.

After all, the great majority of us have the good fortune to live beyond the tentacles of the factions running this country’s sex businesses, drug, smuggling and crime gangs.

However, the sheer scale of the operation uncovered in Spain and Ireland yesterday should challenge even the most complacent amongst us. If the unearthing of an estimated €200 million crime business run mainly by Irish expatriates does not provoke something more than a ripple of concern then yet another attempted murder in Limerick on Monday night might be a tipping point in how we perceive these crimes.

In Malaga an Irishman and two of his sons suspected of masterminding a drugs, guns and money laundering empire were arrested. The operation led to the arrest of 26 people in Spain, the UK and Ireland.

Emphasising the international response to these gangs’ operations simultaneous searches were carried out by the Spanish National Police and Britain’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency. Garda detectives were posted to Spain and the UK. Spanish and British police are also working in Ireland along with Europol. Senior sources in the investigation said the middle-aged man arrested in Malaga, and originally from Dublin, was detained during a raid on a €6 million mansion.

The scale and ruthlessness of these gangs pose, no matter what the complacent might care to imagine, a grave security risk to us all. There is little or nothing that they are not prepared to do to protect their interests. They will not contemplate opposition as the recent fires at head shops all around the country showed. The brutal murder of Roy Collins in Limerick showed that they will kill on little more than a whim. They represent the greatest threat of violence to our society since the high point of Provo terrorism three decades ago.

Just as the Provos were defeated when the community they imagined they represented withdrew the sanctuary that made their murderous campaigns possible these gangs might be defeated in the same way. We may not all have the great courage of Roy Collins’ family but unless we respond in a more effective way we will certainly pay a heavy price.

It is difficult however to expect anyone to take a stand that may have lethal consequences to defend a society where white collar criminals seem to operate with impunity. We cannot expect too many people to take risks to confront organised crime if not even one of those central to our economic crisis has faced charges two years after that house of cards came tumbling down.

Justice is blind and impartial. It does not care if you are a drug dealer, a gunrunner, a corrupt banker or a dodgy auditor, it will respond impartially.

The gardaí and their international colleagues must be congratulated for their success yesterday but unless justice is seen to be proactive – and very soon – in our banking scandals the common purpose that unites successful societies will be damaged even further.