Fight against crime can’t get complacent
As evidenced by today’s Irish Examiner overview of the national crime scene, the success of the Garda battle against criminal elements is particularly evident in Limerick, a city with the dubious reputation of some of the worst violence in the Republic. The picture depicted by a senior officer reveals the war is being won by the forces of law and order.
Having been victims of a vicious reign of terror, decent, law-abiding people are beginning to enjoy normal lives again, free of the dark shadow of the gun in what can best be described as a Wild West scenario. Ultimately, the seeds of violence were sown because entire communities had been shamefully neglected by the authorities.
No society should be expected to endure the appalling spectacle of gang warfare between rival families, a bloody chapter of internecine strife which claimed the lives of innocent victims at the hands of thugs and so-called drug barons who felt they were above the law.
At one stage the reign of terror was so violent they accounted for almost one third of all shootings in the State with 103 gun attacks in 2007. In contrast, the number of shootings in the city last year was down to 15.
Measured against that backdrop, the major fall in serious crime there is all the more welcome. This transformation is due to the success of a no-nonsense Garda crackdown which has put most members of the notorious McCarthy-Dundon and Keane-Collopy gangs, two of Ireland’s most feared criminal entities, securely behind bars.
No consolation should be drawn from the relative absence of internecine strife among criminals in Cork, a situation due more to an unwritten policy of self-preservation than any ethical consideration. With six unsolved murder investigations since 1995 all apparently related to the Cork drugs trade, there have been, in stark contrast with Limerick, no reprisals. But as witnessed in the tragedy of recent days, so-called ‘recreational’ drugs can kill. Those responsible must be brought to book.
The renewal of violence in Dublin, where several criminals have been victims of reprisal killings involving rival gangs, was seen with the death of Real IRA-man Alan Ryan, known to be involved in extorting money from the drugs trade.
The undeniable lesson to be drawn from the Limerick experience is that only through unrelenting Garda activity will the capability of criminal gangs be reduced. Going on the Dublin experience, younger and more vicious criminals inevitably emerge to fill the vacuum when others are put out of business.
According to Garda figures, some 250 members of organised gangs were arrested last year while €69m-worth of drugs were seized and €500,000 in cash confiscated. The Criminal Assets Bureau recouped €4m in taxes from leading criminals, and secured almost €3m through the sale of criminal assets.
However, recent claims by the GRA, the union representing rank and file gardaí, that the Government is shackling the force in rural areas of the country by cuts to manpower and an increasing loss of patrol cars taken off the road at 300,000km, are a graphic reminder of the danger of complacency in the fight against criminals.
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