Armed gardai on alert over €1,7m drug feud

Increased patrols to counter rising threat of violence

- PAUL HEALY

ARMED gardai are to be deployed amid fears of a major escalation in violence linked to a bitter feud centred on a €1.7miilion drug debt.

Officers in Tallaght, South Co Dublin, are on high alert following a spate of recent incidents and the discovery of a pipe bomb inadvertently brought into the local garda station on Friday.

Sources say members of the forces's armed support unit will patrol the area.

A source said: "This is all over a €1.7million cocaine debt and it has escalated significantly in recent days.

"There have been upwards of 14 incidents between these two factions but things seriously escalated on Friday."