Irish Drugs Wars roll on relentlessly

Two young men jumped off a balcony in the plush gated Ard na Cluaine complex at Yellow Meadows, off the Nangor Road in Clondalkin, West Dublin, last week when Gardai came calling, tipped off about a stash of heroin. The gang leader whose 54 kilos of heroin had been fingered, will have lost €11 million. He is based in the Kilmainham area of the south west inner city, whose gang turf is the south inner city and in Crumlin and Drimnagh.

The 54 Kilos of heroin , the biggest ever in Eire, is said to have cost €2.5 Mn for the drug and another €1.5 Mn for couriers, would gross the gang €6 Mn (ish). More than 40kg of heroin - with a street value in excess of €8m has been seized in Eire this year - compared with just 15kg seized in 2005.

The word on the street is that another gangster from Drimnagh whose turf covers Drimnagh and Crumlin had tipped off the Gardai as part of a continuing drugs war, which has resulted in eight (known) deaths so far. It started when 20-year-old Declan Gavin was stabbed to death in a Crumlin chip shop in 2001 - he had been identified as a Gardai source after the seizure of a €1.5m shipment of drugs in a hotel bedroom in March 2000.

In July 2002, gang leader John Rattigan was shot dead through the forehead with a handgun at close range after an attempt the previous March . After a lull ,in January 2004, Paul Warren was gunned down in a Dublin pub. In March last year , John Roche was killed in Kilmainham which was shortly followed by Darren Geoghegan (26) and Gavin Byrne (30) and 2 nights later Noel Roche (brother of John Roche) were shot dead in their cars.

Wayne Zambra (22) became the eighth victim when, at about 1am on a Sunday morning in August , he was gunned down on Cameron Street, just off Cork Street.

As well as these deaths there are others which may be involved - Niall Hanlon whose body was found buried in February 2005 after his disappearance the previous September.David McCreevy was silenced on his doorstep in Tallaght at the samwe time when out on bail (!) awaiting trial on charges related to the seizure of heroin and cannabis in Dublin and Kildare late last year.

Seamus "Shavo" Hogan died in a hail of bullets when he and his wife went for a night out at the Transport Club, off Clogher Road but as a known associate of Martin "The General" Cahill he might have been a hit of some paramilitaries.

Elswhere Barry Monaghan, (aged 26), of Clonliffe Road, Ballybough was handed 120 hours community service after pleading guilty to unlawful possession of a container full of on March 31, 2004 at Togher Business Park, Naas, Co Kildare, knowing them to have been stolen and to using a vehicle without the consent of the owner.

Detective Sergeant Mark Kavanagh told the court that the Garda was targeting a city centre group based nearby who were involved in stealing containers from the Dublin Docks, armed robbery and other serious crimes.

The court was told that the pre-excise value of the cigarettes was €53,514.94 and had a retail value of €2.5 Mn.

Lord Patel reported here the largest drugs haul in the North on October 10th of 4 tonnes of cannabis resin with a street value of €10 Mn. - £14.5 Mn. at Newtownards, Co Durham.

A 25-year-old was arrested in a house in Cork, along with 7 Kgs of cocaine worth €2.5 Mn, 12 kilos of a special mixing agent for the preparation of cocaine for street sale and a "substantial amount of cash in small used bills".

The picture is of Veronica Guerin the Dublin journalist who was killed in June 1996 for exposing the Drugs empires in Dublin. Brian Meehan, a Dublin hoodlum got life for murdering her.