Two associates of an extremely violent criminal were being held and quizzed yesterday after gardai seized a firearm.
Sources told the Mirror that the revolver was “ready to use” but they are now working to establish why the pair had it. After 5pm on Tuesday, gardai in Ballyfermot were on patrol when they saw two men from a distance near the Kylemore area and the gun was pulled out.
The officers called for backup units and the suspects were arrested while a gun and ammunition was found nearby. A source said: “The gun was certainly in good shape and ready to use. It’s not known for what yet. But it’s certainly a possibility they were about to try to target someone. And that will come as the investigation progresses.”
Read more: Ballyfermot mob attack garda expected to be off work for weeks
Another source added: “It highlights that despite the huge amount of abuse and trouble gardai have received from a minority of the community there that they are still on top of it out there.”
The two men in custody are aged in their 30s and have been involved in a number of burglaries over the years together. Both are close associates of a volatile thug who is understood to be currently in custody on a number of matters.
This hood has been linked to a number of attacks and shootings. He was once the centre of a high profile manhunt and has links to gangs based in Ballyfermot.
Gardai say the firearm and ammunition will now be sent to the Garda Ballistics Unit for analysis to see if it was linked to any previous crimes on record. On the arrests, a spokesman said: “The men, who are both aged in their 30s, are currently detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, 1939/98 at Clondalkin Garda Station. Investigations are ongoing.”
The gun find and arrests in Ballyfermot came after unrelated chaos in the Dublin suburb earlier in the week when a garda suffered facial injuries from a bottle after he and a colleague were surrounded by a masked mob. The two officers had been assisting an elderly woman who was almost knocked over by a youth on a scrambler bike when they came under a hail of missiles.
Read more: Two arrested as garda suffers facial injury after officers come under attack by mob in Dublin
The incident followed a funeral for a young man, who died unexpectedly earlier this month, at the Church of the Assumption in Ballyfermot. Gardai had a policing plan in place as they had anticipated a number of scrambler bikes would be out. However they only intervened when the female pedestrian was almost hit at a pedestrian crossing by one of the dozens which tore around the roads of the Dublin suburb.
It was one of a number of incidents in which gardai were taunted and came under attack, many of which were recorded and uploaded to social media. Videos showed incidents of scrambler bikes blocking Gardaí cars and objects being hurled at them in the Ballyfermot area. One clip showed a bike being thrown in the direction of a standing garda, which hit a nearby car.
One garda car was blocked in at the entrance of Tynan Hall Grove by males on scramblers who were revving in front of the car. Later on, two youths who were on bikes were arrested at a filling station on Kylemore Road before they were released with a file going to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In a statement afterwards, gardai said that “a number of incidents of dangerous driving and reckless endangerment were observed by Gardaí. While intervening in one of these incidents, a member of An Garda Síochána was struck with a missile and has subsequently received medical treatment. Two Garda vehicles, a Community Policing Patrol Car and a Marked Patrol Car received significant damage while present at this event.
"Two men were arrested on the Kylemore Road in relation to incidents of dangerous driving and two motorbikes were seized. Both males were taken to Garda Stations in South Dublin and have since been released pending file to the DPP. A policing plan remains in place in the area to ensure the safety of local residents.”
However, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said gardai are now starting to fear one of them will be killed when called out to deal with anti-social mobs. General secretary Antoinette Cunningham said attacks on gardaí are becoming an almost everyday occurrence. She said: “At the back of this are individual gardaí who receive injuries, some of them life-threatening and we are fast building into a society where this is going to become normalised.
Read more: Garda car damaged by roadside gang near infamous ramming location
"We do not want to find ourselves in a situation where a member is fatally injured whilst carrying out their duties. I think people look at videos like that and they say ‘why would I put myself in a situation like that?’ We had an 107 resignations last year. Unprecedented in the organisation. I think Government are failing to address the issues with staff associations.
“We haven’t even in An Garda Síochána started the process yet of conducting exit interviews with those who are leaving to find out why the job is no longer attractive to them. That is a failure by Garda management to examine as expeditiously as they can the issues why people are leaving in numbers we have never seen.”
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