Sibling of journalist gunned down 20 years ago fears Ireland is losing war against violence as election loomsLast week working-course areas of Dublin resembled Belfast during the dark years of the Troubles as armed police in body armour mounted checkpoints on roads main into the strongholds of warring gangland figures.
Now the brother of murdered investigative reporter Veronica Guerin says he believes the Irish state is losing the war it started against organised crime when his sister was killed 20 years ago. Jimmy Guerin said the measures introduced to combat gang crime are failing as rivals wage warfare on the streets of Dublin. One of the “monuments” to his sister,shot dead by criminals in 1996, was the establishment of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), and a body with far-reaching powers to seize the profits and resources of Irish gangsters. The creation of the bureau helped to chase out many of the celebrity criminals who controlled the dark markets in drugs,firearms and counterfeit goods. Some fled to Amsterdam, others to the Costal del Sol as they moved their millions out of Ireland and away from its reach.
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Source: theguardian.com