Dissident Republicans are set wage war on crime gangs in Dublin, it emerged last night.
Sources have told The Star that allies of slain Real IRA boss Alan Ryan — killed by criminals in Dublin six months ago — are now set to take out mobsters and drug dealers in the city in revenge for his death.
Ryan (32) was shot dead at the start of September near his home in Clongriffin, north Dublin — after a crime gang from the area refused to pay him thousands of euro that he was extorting from them.
The RIRA had vowed revenge — but only crime godfather Eamonn Kelly (65), who was on the periphery of the gang that killed Ryan, was shot dead in revenge.
But Republican sources have told The Star that now the RIRA is set to seek out mobsters it believes are part of the crime network behind Ryan’s death — and kill them.
“The criminals are making a mistake of they think we are not coming after them,” a Republican source told The Star.
“The time is now right for action. We will be taking action against the drug dealers and criminals.”
The development is the latest twist in a feud between criminals and Republicans in the capital that has left 10 people dead in the last three years.
The Star’s exclusive, 16-page investigation into the gangs of Ireland today includes a probe into the brutal war between the Real IRA and a coalition of gangsters calling themselves the Criminal Action Force (CAF).
That group was set up in 2010 to protect criminals from extortion demands by Ryan’s RIRA — who got more than €420,000 from them.
Gardai believe the secretive CAF is led by a criminal from the west of Dublin.
It boasts it has more than 200 members.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Republican sympathisers marched through the centre of Dublin last night in tribute to slain Alan Ryan.
The large group gathered on O’Connell Street at 6pm carrying banners with pictures of Ryan on them.
The marchers walked down Dublin’s main thoroughfare behind an Irish tri-colour and a number of plain black banners.
A source told The Star that the march passed off peacefully.
