KEN FOY CRIME CORRESPONDENT – 07 DECEMBER 2013 07:00 AM
There has been a big increase in tensions within dissident republicanism after a mob who were aligned to slain Real IRA terror chief Alan Ryan have increased a campaign of extortion and intimidation.
Sources have revealed that this faction, who are in conflict with a larger IRA group, came to the fore in the months after Ryan's murder and have been targeting a large number of low-level drug dealers in the Artane, Coolock and Kilmore areas.
A source said: "They are carrying on with the exact same kind of stuff that was taking place before Alan Ryan was murdered and the talk is that if they keep it up, it won't be long before one of them is whacked.
"Their activities are not impressing the IRA's Northern leadership and the senior Dublin men who have been installed down here – they should really watch out now for their former IRA colleagues. Things are tense.
EXTORTION
"A woman from Ballymun and some of Alan Ryan's closest associates are the big movers in this and it is leading to a lot of tensions within dissident republicanism in the capital."
The Herald has learned that some of those involved in the extortion drive are linked to the Irish Republican Voice movement that was formed earlier this year and held a fundraising event in a Dublin pub last weekend.
Separately, the rival IRA faction has given leadership roles to two veteran Dublin dissident republicans – men from the north inner city and Ballymun.
Sources say that gardai are investigating if Ryan's associates were involved in the shooting of two half-brothers aged 32 and 23 who hobbled into a Dublin fire station on consecutive nights last weekend.
The Herald can reveal that detectives believe the siblings were shot at Fairview Park.
The special detective unit is now assisting gardai at Mountjoy Garda Station in relation to the bizarre shootings of the two north Dublin men who have addresses in Artane and Coolock, with officers are saying that the shootings were "punishment attacks".
