Gardai warn of upsurge in gang extortion crime

Gardai have received reports that eight extortion attempts were made on Dublin businesses in the past three months by splinter republican groups. Those targeted included car dealers and publicans, as well as dubious businesses suspected of laundering money for criminals. Garda sources say the figures represent the tip of the iceberg in a recent "upsurge" in criminal racketeering by dissident republican groups, the Real IRA and the INLA. "There has been an upsurge in complaints in the last two to three months," said a senior garda source. "These groups are 'taxing' crime and legitimate businesses."

Four businesses in the south Dublin suburbs of Tallaght and Crumlin were approached for money by dissident republicans in the past three months. The other four extortion attempts occurred in the north and south inner city. In one case, a businessman reported that his children were being watched at school after he refused to pay a cut of his profits to two men claiming to represent the Real IRA. The modus operandi is similar in most cases. In the south Dublin cases, the businesspeople involved were approached directly at their business premises by two brothers, who claimed to represent the Real IRA. They were accompanied by two or three burly minders, but of the reports made to detectives so far, the threats were not explicit. In one case, the dissident republicans asked for 25 per cent of the profits of a business in return for protection.

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Dissident bomb would have caused 'utter devastation'

Police admitted last night that a deadly van bomb, planted outside a PSNI station by dissident republicans, would have caused "utter devastation" if it had been detonated. The van, which contained an estimated 300 pounds of homemade explosive, was left outside the station in the border village of Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone, on Thursday night. Some 350 people were evacuated from their homes as the bomb was being defused by British army ordnance experts, and residents had to spend the night in three local halls. A burnt-out car was later found abandoned near the border in Co Monaghan and gardai were last night working closely with the PSNI to establish if it was linked to the terror gang behind the failed bomb attempt.

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32 arrested in hit on major European crime ring

British, Irish and Spanish police launched dawn raids Tuesday in a coordinated hit aimed at smashing a major European guns, drugs and money laundering empire. 32 people were arrested, including the suspected "godfather", in a strike on a crime conspiracy with tentacles stretching across the globe. "The target was a criminal network suspected of trafficking huge quantities of drugs and firearms and of laundering hundreds of millions of pounds in criminal profits," Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) said in a statement. The gang's suspected crime lord, a 53-year-old Irish-born British national living in Malaga, was arrested in the southern Spanish coastal resort.

Spanish officers detained him along with family members, other British and Irish nationals and four Spanish lawyers. The 20 suspects arrested in Spain were being questioned in Malaga. Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, speaking to Spanish public television from Warsaw, said the raids focused on a "mafia family" based on the southern Costa del Sol. "It's an operation against well-known mafia operating in different countries which is linked to different killings, as well as a number of crimes from drugs trafficking to people trafficking." About 750 officers were involved in the operation.

In Britain around 230 officers raided homes and businesses, with nine men and two women across southeastern England and the west Midlands arrested and taken for questioning. "The scale of this joint operation by law enforcement agencies from so many countries is an indication of how prolific we think this network was," said SOCA's Trevor Pearce. "Today's arrests will have dealt a major blow to an organised criminal business suspected of supplying drugs and guns to gangs in cities across the UK and Europe.

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Irish Drug Gang Armed With Rocket Launchers

Two rocket launchers and an assault rifle were seized today by detectives targeting the activities of a criminal gang. Nine kilos of cocaine, with an estimated street value of €630,000, was also discovered in a warehouse in the Clane area of Kildare. Gardai from the Organised Crime Unit searched the premises after four men were charged yesterday under tough laws to combat gangland crime. The army's bomb disposal squad was at the scene. Gardai said officers stopped a car on the Naas Road yesterday and detained two men when a kilo of cocaine was found. Two more men were arrested in a follow-up search operation in the Rathcoole area and all four are being questioned at Clondalkin Garda Station. It is understood the seizures and arrests are linked to a south Dublin drugs gang.

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Irish National Liberation Army to disband and give up weapons

The Irish National Liberation Army announced today it will begin discussion with General John de Chastelain's disarmament body and move towards decommissioning its guns and bombs. The republican paramilitary group that assassinated the Tory MP and Margaret Thatcher ally Airey Neave is to give up its weapons and pursue purely peaceful politics.

During the Troubles the INLA murdered 113 people including 15 of its own members during several brutal internal feuds in the 80s and 90s. Among its most infamous members was Dominic "Mad Dog" McGlinchey, once Ireland's most wanted men, who led INLA during the mid-80s.

The announcement was made at the Seamus Costello Commemoration in Bray, County Dublin. Costello founded the INLA after a split within the IRA in 1974. Three years later the IRA shot him dead in central Dublin. "The armed struggle is over," the INLA statement said.

The movement's political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, told the graveside gathering that the best way to achieve a united socialist Ireland is "through political, peaceful means".

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