By Charlie Mallon
Monday March 09 2009
Gardai admit the homes and lives of innocent people in Dublin's Crumlin are being shattered by "coked up" criminals engaged in feuds over drug money.
On four occasions last week touring gunmen have blasted the front of houses in the mindless campaign of intimidation.
But some of the targets have been the homes of people who have no connection whatsoever with drugs or the internal faction fighting.
A senior investigating officer stressed today: "There is a real danger that someone, completely innocent, is going to get killed.
"How are they to know who is standing behind a curtain?"
The latest attack happened at 2.50am on Saturday.
Gardai have confirmed that the occupants of the house on Captain's Rd in Crumlin have nothing to do with the gangs.
The same applies to a family on Cashel Rd whose home was attacked earlier in the week.
Reckless
"Some of these thugs are coked up to the eyeballs and are reckless and indiscriminate," said an investigating officer.
"They are directed to one house and hit the wrong one across the road, on an opposite corner or several doors away."
One of the gangs is touring the area in a black BMW which has been seen leaving the scene of several shootings.
One resident told the Herald: "The gardai are doing their best but the laws have to be changed. These guys are flying around in high-powered cars but have never worked in their lives.They should be confiscated. Young kids are looking up to them as role models."
Sources have revealed that one of the men involved has lost relatives in the feud which has claimed 14 lives in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area.
Another is a man apparently trying to establish himself as a new gang leader in the area.
The main feuding gangs have had a truce since before Christmas, brokered by the mothers of two victims and two priests.
cmallon@herald.ie
- Charlie Mallon
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