Irish Herald
By Cormac Byrne
Tuesday October 05 2010
A MAN kidnapped by a Tallaght drug trafficker and an associate of 'Fat' Freddie Thompson was beaten and scalded with boiling water.
The victim managed to escape after his kidnappers fell into a drink and drug-fuelled sleep. However, he has refused to make a complaint to gardai over the attack at a house in Lucan on Friday.
At the same time, gardai have deployed the ERU back on the streets of the capital in an operation codenamed Hybrid.
The SWAT officers were mounting checkpoints in Finglas, Ballyfermot and Crumlin/Drimnagh as gang feuds threatened to explode once more.
Officers are most concerned about the feud in Ballyfermot, which led to the murders of the Corbally brothers last June.
Meanwhile, gardai had to release the Freddie gang members who abducted the man in Derry. The victim was too frightened to make a statement about the incident, the Herald understands.
The man had been abducted from his home near Magheraflet, Co Derry, early last Friday and then brought across the border to a house in Dublin.
He managed to escape from the property at Tandy's Lane in Lucan after his captors fell asleep after taking a number of pills and drinking.
The kidnap victim staggered to Lucan Garda Station half-naked and covered in blood and raised the alarm.
In a matter of minutes a large number of patrol cars were on the scene and three men were arrested on the spot.
All three were held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, with two of the men being detained at Lucan garda station and the third at Ronanstown.
Robbery
But gardai were forced to release the men on Sunday after the victim refused to make a complaint.
One of the kidnappers is major Tallaght drug trafficker in his 40s, who is a target of the Organised Crime Unit and the Garda National Drugs Unit.
This criminal has previously been imprisoned for a failed armed robbery where shots were fired.
Another attacker acts as a drug runner for the notorious 'Fat' Freddie Thompson gang and is related to a number of infamous armed robbers and kidnappers.
This criminal also has strong links to drugs gangs in Birmingham and has links to one of the gang members responsible for the kidnapping of former National Irish Bank chief Jim Lacey.
Lacey was snatched from his home in Grove Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin, in November 1993. It was the last big criminal enterprise by the late Martin 'The General' Cahill.
The third man is known to gardai but is a relatively small player in gangland circles.
The victim was given an escort to the border where he was picked up by another individual who is understood to have brought him home.
A garda spokesperson said."The gardai in Lucan are investigating an incident in which a male was allegedly falsely imprisoned. All three men have been released and investigations are ongoing."
The incident occurred as garda armed response units mounted stop and search checkpoints in Tallaght in a crackdown on the movements of known criminals, including associates of Thompson.
hnews@herald.ie
- Cormac Byrne
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