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Key suspect in feud quizzed on alleged INLA membership

THE suspected leader of the INLA in Dublin, Declan Duffy, was being questioned by gardai last night about alleged membership of an illegal organisation.

Duffy was arrested by armed detectives from the Garda Special Branch on a street in Tallaght on Sunday evening.

He was taken for questioning to Blackrock garda station where he was still being held last night under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

He can be held without charge under that legislation for a maximum of 72 hours.

The renegade republican group has become mainly a criminal outfit in the past few years and some of its members have been linked to the recent spate of pipe bombs and other incendiary devices found in various parts of Dublin. Duffy is suspected of being a key figure in a gang feud in Dublin's south inner city. The feud has threatened to flare up in recent weeks and several members of the rival gangs have been wearing bullet proof vests for their protection.

As a result of a number of incidents in the area, senior garda officers have stepped up local patrols.

Duffy was previously jailed in 2001 for his part in a major confrontation between the INLA and another Dublin crime gang in an industrial estate in Ballymount on the southside of the city and was released from prison early last year.

Apart from the INLA gang, gardai in the south city are also keeping close watch on members of the rival gangs involved in the deadly Crumlin-Drimnagh feud and a fourth gang led by a former close associate of murdered gangland boss, Martin Cahill.

Meanwhile, in an unconnected incident a young man was shot in the left leg after he allegedly broke into a flat at Basin Street in the south inner-city early yesterday morning.

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The man also suffered wounds to his arms and head, possibly from a samurai sword.

He was found lying in a large pool of blood after gardai broke into the flat following reports of a shooting incident. Detectives later arrested a relative of one of the gang leaders in the area and he was being questioned last night about the shooting.

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