GARDAI WARN 25 DRUG-DEALERS OF ASSASSINATION THREATS

Twenty-five drug dealers in south inner Dublin have been cautioned by
gardai that their lives are under threat arising from the bloody feud
between the two Drimnagh and Crumlin-based gangs.

It is the largest number of such warnings ever issued in a single division.

Intelligence has led local detectives to intercept and prevent
several murders, but sources say the threat to life is ever present,
with gang members "floating around" looking for rivals and setting up
people for assassination.

One attempt at murder narrowly failed earlier this month when a
leading member of one gang, whose brother was killed in the
seven-year feud, was shot at near the North Strand.

That plot was carried out by members of the gang led by the opponents
of Freddie Thompson, who narrowly escaped assassination in February
this year when gunmen opened fire on a car he was a passenger in at
Estepona on the Costa del Sol.

Paddy Doyle, from Portland Row in north inner Dublin, who was a front
seat passenger in the car, was shot dead. Gardai said that following
yet another upsurge in activity around the south inner city, Thompson
left for Spain last week.

Gardai arrested a man in the south inner city last week who is
suspected of carrying out gun and machete attacks on the homes of
Thompson's mother and grandmother earlier this year.

Gardai say that Thompson's opponents, the gang formerly led by Joseph
Rattigan who was murdered in 2002, are currently pushing to try and
take over control of the drugs trade in the south inner city.

The Garda "G" District -- which covers the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas
- -- currently has the highest homicide rate in the country, with eight
killings since last October, though not all of these were gang related.

Local gardai say that this might be a record for a single Garda
District, and that they are desperately short of resources to handle
so many murder investigations.

Gardai in some of the worst affected areas in Dublin are critical of
the fact that even though they are making regular arrests of gang
members on drugs and firearms offences, they nearly all get bail.

"We're doing out job, the DPP is doing their job and the prisons are
keeping them in. The courts aren't doing their job," one source said.

The Government changed the Bail Act in 1997 following a referendum
the previous year sparked by public outrage over the number of
accused, including people charged with murder, who were routinely
being released on bail.

Garda sources say that some of the most dangerous criminals in Dublin
are currently on bail.

In many cases, they say, the criminals are at their most active when
on bail because they are usually trying to amass money to look after
family while they are in prison.

Meanwhile, gardai in Finglas and Coolock are continuing their search
for the killers of the two men gunned down within 12 hours last weekend.

Both Trevor Walsh from Finglas and Anthony Foster from Coolock are
believed to have been killed by rival drug dealers.

Gardai said the murders do not appear to have been linked.

Asked about feuding that had been going on the Finglas-Blanchardstown
area last week, one local garda said: "It's too complicated to
explain." There are a number of rivalries and vendettas between drug
dealers in the Finglas-Blanchardstown area that have arisen since the
break up of the "Westies" gang and the murders of its leaders Stephen
Sugg and Shane Coates in Spain two years ago; and the break up of the
gang led by Martin Hyland, who was shot dead in December 2006.

One source said that there are currently a number of criminals vying
to take over the drugs trade in the north-western suburbs of the
city, and this is expected to lead to more killings.

The north inner city feud, which has claimed four lives over the past
year, is still "live" according to gardai.

And despite claims earlier this year that a truce had been engineered
in the Limerick feud between the Keane-Collopys and the
McCarthy-Dundons, this too is "active".

A plot to murder a senior McCarthy-Dundon gang member was uncovered
last month when gardai stopped a car containing two rival gang
members and a former IRA assassin.

A map detailing the location of the gang member's home was found in
the car, leading gardai to issue a caution to the man believed to
have been targeted.