Gardai seize guns on troubled estate but feud strife goes on
SEVERAL high-powered weapons and rounds of ammunition were seized by gardai in Limerick city at the weekend following a massive search operation involving 50 members of the force.
Some 53 houses were searched in the Moyross housing estate on Saturday resulting in the seizure of a sub-machine gun, a machine pistol, a telescopic rifle and ammunition.
Shots
The searches followed a fourth consecutive night of violence in the north-side estate on Friday night, with more shots fired again early yesterday morning.
Most of the searches, which finished at 8pm Saturday, were concentrated on houses in the Pineview Gardens area of Moyross, the scene of most of the recent violence.
Two men who were aged 21 and 46 were arrested in connection with the weapons seizures.
They were still being held for questioning last night under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, which means they can each be held for up to three days.
Saturday's search operation was in direct response to the feud-related violence, which has erupted in Moyross in recent nights.
And despite the huge garda activity over the weekend, shots were fired again at 1am yesterday at a house in the Pineview Gardens area.
A gunman targeted a house in the same estate shortly after midnight, also on Friday night.
Nobody was injured in either of the incidents.
The shootings followed six fire-bomb attacks on Moyross homes last week, where three houses were completely destroyed.
Last Thursday night, the family home of the late Aidan Kelly in College Avenue, Moyross, was petrol bombed along with two other houses in the area.
A child's teddy bear was ignited and placed on a fuse box near a house
belonging to
relatives of a dead gangland victim
Aidan Kelly (19) was shot dead in Blackwater, Ardnacrusha, Co Clare, in May 2006.
Earlier this month, the dead man's younger brother, Liam, was shot in Moyross near his home, but his injuries were not life-threatening.
Last Wednesday night, a man known to gardai was injured when he was stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver also in Pineview Gardens.
On the same night, a child's teddy bear was ignited and placed on a fuse box near a house belonging to relatives of murdered gangland victim Noel Campion.
The 35-year-old was gunned down in broad daylight as he travelled on the back of a motorbike in the Thomondgate area of Limerick last April.
His younger brother, Gary Campion (23), is charged with the murder of 'Fat Frankie' Ryan (21), who was shot dead last year.
Ryan was a member of the notorious McCarthy Dundon criminal gang and was murdered in Moyross last September.
- Kathryn Hayes
