One of Dublin's most experienced Garda detectives has said the fight against organised crime is being seriously hampered by witness intimidation and that many crime black spots are under-policed.
Det Insp Brian Sherry was commenting on his retirement from An Garda Síochána after 36 years.
He has spent recent years based in Blanchardstown, west Dublin, where he has been one of the leaders of a large team of detectives in the Garda's K district, which also includes Finglas.
Mr Sherry said despite the existence of the witness protection programme, many investigations into serious crime were coming to nothing because witnesses were being intimidated into withdrawing their statements.
"It would become known to a criminal that a witness had made a statement. Either they would approach the witness directly, or they would get another person to approach them and say: 'hey, listen, that statement you made, withdraw it or else' ".
"And it's a very dogged 'or else'. People would be left in no doubt what would happen to them if they didn't withdraw it. The next thing, you'd have people ringing the station saying: 'can I come down and talk to you, I've been threatened' ".
He said that the threats often came from people who were known to have access to firearms and were known to be willing to use them.
"They've threatened witnesses that they will shoot them, shoot their children, burn their houses, basically destroy their family fabric, all of these things if they give any help to gardaí. These people control by fear."
One of the biggest changes in his time in the force was the frequency with which guns, including high-powered automatic weapons, and knives are used nowadays to settle disputes.
Unlike previous eras, many criminals were now using cocaine. The drug made them paranoid and they often believed others were plotting against them and so must be killed.
If a young drug dealer lost drugs owned by a gang in previous decades, they could expect to be beaten. In many cases now, they would be shot dead.
Many gang members were now going to other jurisdictions to be trained in the use of weapons at firing ranges.
The implosion of drugs gangs such as the Westies in Blanchardstown and the group led by Martin Marlo Hyland, who was murdered in Finglas last December, demonstrated the manner in which even leading gangland figures were regularly murdered.
"In reality, it is a very short opportunity. If anybody went up to the graveyard in Mulhuddart (west Dublin), the amount of young men in their early 20s that are in that graveyard is absolutely frightening."
He believed early intervention programmes in schools had as much of a role to play in preventing serious crime as the Garda. However, more Garda resources were needed in some areas.
"There are districts in Dublin that are over-policed and there are districts that are under policed. We should look at the problem areas . . . Finglas and Blanchardstown are ones I can speak of from experience. Crumlin is another."
Many of the Garda units involved in tackling organised crime were often under pressure to participate in a large number of ongoing investigations, making it difficult in some cases to maintain intensive investigations.
