McAuliffe calls for armed Garda presence to tackle Finglas gang feud

Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin North West, Paul McAuliffe, has called for the Garda Commissioner to deploy armed Gardaí and visible checkpoints in the Finglas area to tackle the escalating feud between drug gangs.

Deputy McAuliffe was speaking after another person was murdered over the weekend which is suspected to be connected with the feud.

“Over the past few weeks we have seen two murders, petrol bombing, a kidnapping and threats to life on social media platforms,” Deputy McAuliffe said.

“The ordinary law-abiding people of Finglas need to feel safe in their community.

“We saw how these feuds escalate to tit for tat killings in the North East Inner City and we need a special operation involving Gardaí and CAB to ensure that innocent people do not get caught up in the violence between gangland thugs.

“I am calling on the Garda Commissioner to meet with local public and community representatives to discuss his plans to tackle this situation and direct more Garda resources to the area.

“Unfortunately, we have all seen this feud escalate over the last few weeks and local people need to know that Gardaí are going to tackle those responsible and defuse the violence.”

McAuliffe says that community initiatives should be introduced to discourage young people from entering into gangs and criminal activity.

“CAB have a role to play in seizing the lucrative assets of well-known gangland operators and we must also think about targeted community interventions to protect young people from being used by gangs in their turf wars, long term.

“We have seen success in the recent past where Dublin City Council in conjunction with An Garda Síochána successfully seized a property that was being used as a gang crime headquarters, we need to see more of this co-operation between agencies to put a stop to gangland crime,” he says.