THE 'Fat' Freddie Thompson and Brian Rattigan gangs have been replaced by six ruthless new mobs with 200 members, the Sunday World can reveal.

Gardai have declared war on the outfits and have set up an elite new anti-gang squad to crack down on their activities.
The 200 serious criminals, some as young as 16, are operating in just a few square miles in Dublin's south inner city and sources say they are the most dangerous mobsters that gardai have ever encountered.

Bombings

The young thugs have been linked to dozens of incidents of serious crime over the last six months - including murder, pipe bombings and armed robberies.
The new mobs have sprung up from the original Crumlin-Drimnagh feud which has claimed 16 lives, but sources say that Thompson and Rattigan have no control over the latest generation of criminals and are regarded as "yesterday's men".

VVhen Brian 'King Rat' Rattigan was convicted this week of operating a drugs network from his cell not a single criminal turned up in court to pay their respects.He has now been abandoned by his former cohorts and his gang has all but dissolved.'Fat' Freddie is stuck in Spain following his extradition and although he still has supporters, the new gangs have taken over his drug- dealing strongholds,leaving him sidelined.Gardai at Kevin Street station have spent the last three months analysing all serious criminals in their area with links to Thompson and Rattigan and have identified the 200 suspects and six distinct gangs.Senior officers were shocked at the sheer amount of dangerous thugs operating in such a small area and have set up a new unit with orders to get in the faces of criminals and stop and search them on sight.

The anti-gang cops have already started to disrupt the activities of the mobs and all officers in the district have been ordered to harass the mobsters and make their lives hell.
The biggest of the new gangs is based in the Coombe and has an incredible 60 members. The mob is led by convicted thug Greg Lynch and has been linked to drug dealing and armed robberies.
Twenty-eight-year-old Lynch is one of the main targets of the new anti-gang unit and is regarded as a cunning criminal who doesn't talk on mobile phones for fear he is being bugged by cops.

Notorious

The second largest of the gangs is based in the notorious St Teresa's Gardens flats project in Donore Avenue and has reportedly over 40 members.
One of the key figures in this outfit is 25 year-old Paul Gray. He learned the criminal ropes as a driver for key 'Fat' Freddie lieutenant Graham 'the Wig' Whelan.

Gray is the brother in law of Ritchie Thompson and he attacked rival criminal Gerard Eglington in a packed courtroom in July 2011. Eglington was shot dead last year by pals of 'Fat' Freddie. Another mob of 35 gangsters is based in St Vincent Street South, just off Clanbrassil Street in the capital's south-inner city. The leader of this gang is a 23-year-old man who is suspected of setting up his friend Declan O'Reilly to be murdered last September.

The cunning criminal contacted a hitman who was lying in wait on the South Circular Road as O'Reilly was walking home after collecting fireworks with his young son.

O'Reilly was whacked in cold blood and the young boss is now under death threat and his home has been pipe bombed.Gardai say he had no qualms about setting up his mate. He is one of the prime targets of the new gang initiative.

There are a further 15 gangsters operating out of Bluebell. The leader of this faction is Sean Connolly. Connolly is regarded as being a serious player in gang activity and is currently before the Special Criminal Court charged with the murder of gangland don Eamon Kelly last December.
The 34-year-old is said to be a dangerous figure with links to the Real IRA, the old Rattigan gang and 'King Ratt's' heir apparent himself Aaron Rattigan.

Aaron Rattigan - who is a cousin of Brian - is the boss of a gang of around 20 young men based in Basin Street in Dublin 8.
The 22-year-old has become a major gangland player over the last three years and has kept the bloody feud with the Thompson mob going, orchestrating several violent attacks. With Brian Rattigan serving a life sentence for murder, Aaron became the day-ta-day boss and soon had a loyal group of followers around him,including Kenneth Roche, whose two brothers were murdered as part of the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud. Rattigan is regarded as being extremely ruthless and is one of the most dangerous of the new breed of 200 thugs.

Murdered

Another 25 criminals have been identified as operating out of Fatima Mansions, Maryland and Dolphin House. A key player in this mob is 'Fat' Freddie's cousin Eoin O'Connor,The 29-year-old has risen in prominence since 2005 when his face was badly slashed at a music festival by murdered gangsters Gerard Eglington and Anthony Cannon.
O'Connor, who was jailed in 2010 for assaulting a garda, is looked up to by young criminal associates. He acquired the nickname 'Scarface' after the slashing and is one of the new gang unit's main targets. Despite the lack of resources available to them, gardai are determined to take the fight to the young criminals with an in-your-face policing approach. They are maintaining a visible presence on the streets where the gangs operate and are carrying out daily checkpoints and patrols as well as intelligence led searches on suspects'houses.
Senior gardai are worried because many of the 200 or so criminals identified are very young, some still being as young as 16. However, they are all regarded as already being hardened criminals with designs to replace 'Fat' Freddie Thompson and Brian Rattigan as the next generation of 'Mr Bigs'.
Although the six gangs are based in the south-inner city, some of the members are from Crumlin and Drimnagh. Gardai in Kevin Street are leading the operation, although they are working closely with other stations, including Crumlin, Sundrive Road, Pearse Street and Kilmainham. The Emergency Response Unit and Organised Crime Unit are also involved and are mounting joint operations.

SuccessFul

If the new unit is successful it could be extended to other garda districts across Dublin. Some of the original members of the Freddie Thompson and Brian Rattigan gangs supply drugs to the new criminals but moved away from the feud as they got older and the influence of their bosses waned. The main supplier is now Graham Whelan.