GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING AN ongoing feud in Drogheda have charged three men this afternoon.

The men were arrested yesterday following the discovery of a burnt out car by gardaí, and will appear before a special sitting of Drogheda District Court today at 6pm.

Three men were arrested for criminal damage: one man is being detained in Drogheda Garda Station, and the other two are being held at Dundalk Garda Station.

The feud in Drogheda has been ongoing since last summer. There have been 74 feud incidents since June last year and in the last week there have been five petrol bomb attacks. A man was also shot last month as part of the ongoing violence.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said last week that 25 new recruits from the training college in Templemore will be sent to Drogheda in June as part of a crackdown on the gang feud.

These investigations were carried out as part of Operation Stratus.

Gardaí have said that a number of incidents have been reported since Operations Stratus launched, including firearms offences, possession of drugs, petrol bomb incidents, criminal damage offences and general road traffic offences.

- with reporting from Conor McCrave and Cormac Fitzgerald