http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1880125,00.html
 
The Sunday (UK) Times November 20, 2005 

Criminal gangs use surveillance to intimidate gardai
Enda Leahy and Richard Oakley
 
GARDAI say that criminal gangs have been carrying out 
surveillance on police stations in south Dublin in a 
bid to intimidate officers out of giving evidence 
against them. 

Terenure and Rathmines stations have been the subject 
of surveillance by criminals in the last few months, 
and officers say gangs were recording registration 
numbers of garda cars. 

"They get somebody to sit outside the station and look 
at us going in and out," said one officer. "They know 
every registration number of our cars, where they're 
from, the lot." 

Another senior officer said such surveillance is a form 
of intimidation and can include individual officers 
being followed. 

"It's not widespread but it does happen," he said. "A 
garda in Limerick was followed home a while ago. It's 
just part of what these guys do; they'll try and 
intimidate anyone who might give evidence against them. 

"It's a bit worrying when these things happen. They've 
managed to intimidate witnesses, but thankfully not 
gardai." 

Michael Murray, the chief state solicitor in Limerick, 
said such tactics were used by gangs in the city and 
he was not surprised they had spread to other parts 
of the country. 

"We have had cases where the gangs would sit outside 
a garda's house as they went off to work. The gardai 
could do nothing about it," he said. "The gangs would 
then follow them or their families." 

One member of a south Dublin gang formerly linked to 
John Gilligan set up recording equipment at his home 
and used recorded conversations with gardai to make 
allegations of harassment. 

"They videotape everything on or outside their 
premises and record every conversation that you have 
with them," said one garda. "Then they make complaints 
about harassment, and the complaints, of course, have 
to be entertained." 

Gardai say criminal gangs started mounting their own 
surveillance after the launch of Operation Anvil, a 
campaign of overt policing aimed at gathering 
intelligence on gangland figures. 

Anvil, which was extended outside Dublin last week by 
Michael McDowell, the justice minister, reduced crime 
overall but failed to result in any significant 
convictions. "Anvil was working brilliantly initially, 
but now they've copped us," said one garda. "Anvil 
originated in south Dublin when one superintendent 
started using roaming checkpoints. 

"They looked at a lot of suspect people and snazzy 
vehicles and discovered that they were attached to 
burglaries and certain crimes. But now it's become
systematic and the criminals are able to determine
what's what. They're following our cars around in some 
cases, not vice versa. They can go around unnoticed, 
whereas we stand out like a sore thumb. We're sitting 
ducks." 

Gardai investigating the gangland murder of Brian 
Fitzgerald, a Limerick bouncer who was killed in 2002 
for refusing to let drug dealers into Doc's nightclub 
where he worked, say that the conviction of James 
Cahill for the killing opens the way for a series of 
prosecutions of drug dealers in the west of Ireland. 

Cahill has offered to testify against figures in the
Limerick crime scene in order to enter the garda Witness
Security Programme (WSP). 

Six leading criminals in Limerick and Clare are named 
in files sent to the director of public prosecutions 
(DPP). 

They include a Clare businessman who is believed to be 
the largest supplier of cocaine and cannabis outside 
Dublin; a Limerick farmer linked to a number of killings; 
two drug dealers arrested overseas for separate crimes; 
and two Limerick enforcers with criminal records. One 
source close to the case said Cahill will be used to 
corroborate an extensive file submitted by gardai on the
gangland figures.
 
                 === END ===