Granny shooter is linked to South Co Dublin cocaine set
Young gunman who injured 77-year-old woman in attack has ties to Kinahan cartel drug gang
A KINAHAN cartel gang which supplies cocaine to South County Dublin’s fast set is believed to be behind the gun attack which left an innocent 77-year-old Dun Laoghaire great-grandmother badly injured.
The attack is the first in which a firearm has been used in the most peaceful of Dublin’s Garda divisions which, uniquely in the city, has had no gang-related murders.
Armed Garda units carried out raids in two working-class areas of Dun Laoghaire and in Cabra, on the northside of the city, yesterday morning and two arrests were made.
The shooting is officially termed a “firearms discharge” by gardai — but local people insisted it was a clear attempt at murder and said it was fortunate that May Brown, who is well liked and respected in the Monkstown area, survived.
She suffered a wound to her left leg when she went to answer a knock at her front door on Thursday night and a gunman fired through the glass.
One local said: “People here are very concerned and angry. This gang has been getting out of control attacking people and setting fire to cars and trying to burn houses and the guards are nowhere to be seen. And they are flashing the cash all the time.”
The reason for the attack in the Monkstown Farm area is unclear, but local sources said there had been mounting violence in the Monkstown/ Sallynoggin/Ballybrack areas by drug gangs.
Cathaoirleach of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council Cllr Cormac Devlin described the shooting as a “heinous crime” that “should not, and will not, be tolerated in our area or any other area”.
He added: “The perpetrators of this attack showed scant regard for life. I understand there was a child in the house during the incident. I hope Dubliners will unite against this barbarism. I urge anyone with information to come forward to gardai in confidence so the perpetrators can be brought to justice.”
Local people, however, said there had been particular trouble in the area involving a small drugs gang based in the Monkstown area who are being supplied by the cartel.
In one incident early last year another innocent man in his mid-50s was badly beaten by members of the gang as he was having a quiet drink in a local pub simply because he was a relative of a young man in dispute with the gang.
Cars have been set on fire and petrol poured through letter boxes in attempts to burn houses, local people said.
The local gang, which is constantly under pressure to pay the cartel, also attacked another young man with golf clubs over an alleged debt.
Following the attack on the man in the pub last year, the Garda’s armed support unit had to be called in to prevent further violence, which was the first time the ASU had been seen in Dun Laoghaire.
The Dun Laoghaire gang operates in the heart of some of the most expensive residential property areas in the country, and working-class estates, supplying mainly cocaine to rich local users.
The man gardai believe is the main cartel point of contact with the Dun Laoghaire gang was heavily involved in the so-called Crumlin-Drimnagh gang feud that led to up to 20 murders over a decade from 2000 onwards.
This resulted in the faction led by Brian Rattigan, now serving life for murder, being effectively eradicated and the Kinahan cartel establishing unchallenged power in the south city.
The young man believed to have carried out Thursday’s attack is also believed to be in debt to the cartel and carried out the attack to save himself from being shot. It is believed he had a consignment of drugs which were seized by gardai and was unable to pay up, so agreed to carry out the attack.