Immigrants ‘being targeted by gang’

March 2005

An Eastern European crime gang is said to be terrorising members of the immigrant population in Co. Wexford.

An Eastern European woman, who said she was very scared by what is going on, said she knows of two young people who had recently fled home to escape the clutches of the gang, members of whom are based in the Gorey area and in South Wexford.

‘ They think they are the mafia. They should be deported,’ said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Gardai in Wexford said they are aware of ‘a particular group’ of Eastern Europeans who had caused trouble in the past in both the north and south of the county.

‘If members of the community are having trouble with these people, I would urge them to come forward and make complaints,’ said Sgt. Pat Geoghegan.

‘ They demand money and things. They don’t have any money of their own so they take ours. They don’t choose Irish people, only members of their own community,’ said the woman, who sleeps with a carving knife under her pillow.

The woman said members of the East European community who were being victimised by the gang had not reported what was happening to the gardaí, because they feared retribution.

‘If these people are arrested, they will be out again in a few days. Would you report things if that was going to happen?’

She claimed that in one recent incident in South Wexford, a young Eastern European visiting Wexford was dragged for some distance behind a car by members of the gang, but this could not be independently verified and gardaí said the alleged incident had not been reported to them.

‘He told me he was tied to the car and pulled along,’ said the woman.