Gardai in feud probe seize gun and drugs

Gardai in feud probe seize gun and drugs



By Tom Brady Security Editor

Wednesday January 14 2009

Gardai investigating a feud in the Finglas area of Dublin have seized a revolver and a €40,000 haul of cannabis in separate searches.

The finds were made as detectives followed up the shootings of a father and son in the area over the past three days. Gardai said last night that the feud, which resulted from a falling out between two groups in a confined part of the west Dublin suburb, has led to four firearms attacks in the past 18 months.

A man, in his early 50s, was recovering at James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown last night. He was shot twice in the arm and body at a house in Casement Park in Finglas shortly after 8pm on Monday.

The victim's son, who is in his mid-20s, was peppered with shotgun pellets in the attack at the Cappagh House pub, at Cappagh Road, in the early hours of Sunday. In a follow-up search gardai recovered a shotgun and clothing that had been dropped by the two attackers as they fled the scene.

Further inquiries resulted in the seizure of the cannabis haul on waste ground, off the N2 road, and a separate find of a revolver. The weapon was last night undergoing ballistic tests at the Garda technical bureau.

Cannabis

Two men were arrested in connection with the cannabis find and were being held for questioning last night under the drug trafficking legislation, which allows gardai to detain suspects without charge for a maximum of seven days.

The two men are suspected of being involved in the feud and are being checked out by detectives investigating the pub shooting, and an earlier attack on the young victim in the car park of the Cappagh House premises last November.

Gardai said the feud is restricted to a small part of Finglas and is not linked to any of the major gangs in the westside of the capital.

- Tom Brady Security Editor