By Cormac Looney
Friday June 05 2009
Dublin crime gangs have resumed using the 'bomb scare' tactic as a warning against their rivals in the city.
Two suspect devices have been planted in the past week on the city's Northside and the Southside.
No one was injured in either bomb-scare incident, but the use of the tactic and the growing expertise of some gangs has increased concerns about serious injury being inflicted.
The incidents, which took place in Crumlin and Donny-carney, are not related. Gardai believe one of the incidents is linked to a recent murder and the other to a lengthy, on-going drug war.
In the Crumlin incident, a device was left under a car in the Stanaway Road area.
The vehicle is owned by the mother of a man, with drug convictions dating back several years, who is still regarded as a major figure in the drug trade.
Other members of his family were publicly named by the then Concerned Parents Against Drugs during that organisation's street protests.
He has moved out of the Crumlin area, but the gangs persist with the targeting of both immediate families and relatives of those directly involved as a means of issuing their threats.
Sources
The other incident on the Northside is linked to one of the most recent murders in the city, according to local sources.
Gangland figure John "BJ" Clarke (21) was shot more than six times with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol in an underground car park at an apartment complex in Artane.
He and two friends were ambushed at Brookwood Grove, at 3am on May 7.
Up to 15 shots were fired into Clarke's car and the other two men were slightly injured.
There have been several gangland-related shooting incidents on the Northside this year, one involving the murder of David "Fred" Lynch in Coolock in March.
Earlier this year, a suspect device was planted at a community centre in Dolphin's Barn while residents were discussing anti-social and criminal behaviour in the area. It, too, was a hoax.
- Cormac Looney
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