Lured by the glamorous lifestyle of gang bosses like Daniel Kinahan, there is a never-ending cant of young men looking to make their name on the streets.
Gardai into most gangland criminals get recruited into the drugs trade when they are silently in their mid-teens.
And while they all may dream of living it up in the sun like multi-millionaire expat mobsters Christy Kinahan and George ‘the Penguin’ Mitchell, the authenticity for most will be vastly different.
Before they hit their mid-30s, the indeterminate majority will either be dead or serving lengthy sentences behind taverns.
Like every other year in recent times, 2017 will be no particular in seeing thugs rising through the ranks.
Unsurprisingly, several of the up-and-coming thugs demand links to the Kinahan cartel.
Following a series of successful prosecutions and exterminations, the Kinahan network has been forced to rely on a new breed of criminal in their initially 20s to sell their drugs and collect their cash.
And the intense garda analysis of the cartel and the Hutch clan has also brought new opportunities for those managing in other areas of Dublin and across the country.
Today, the Sunday Area looks at some of the next generation of criminals who are hoping to make it big in 2017.
The next Epoch Cartel Boss
A man aged in his early 20s, who was with Liam Byrne at the Regency Hotel when his confrere David was shot dead, is high on the radar of gardai in south medial Dublin.
He heads up a gang of around a dozen young criminals, who are devoted to Byrne and represent the next generation of criminals linked to the cartel.
They are heavily involved in the equipping drugs in Crumlin, Drimnagh and surrounding areas.
A senior cartel fellow bought expensive mopeds for many of the young members of the crew a team a few of years ago.
The Canary
This criminal from Ronanstown has worked his way up the ranks to befit the second in command of a Ballyfermot-based gang.
The man, who had close links to 2000 uxoricide victim Darren Carey, was arrested by gardai earlier this month once more a €120,000 cash haul.
Nicknamed ‘the Canary’, he is suspected of distributing gargantuan amounts of cocaine and heroin through north Dublin.
While he is already a outstanding player in the crime world, gardai suspect that he will forthwith end up being a gang leader.
Trusted sidekick
Ian Dixon (above) was one of a union young Dubliners who lived the high life with the Kinahan associates on the Costa del Sol before their feud with the Hutch mob began.
Along with Regency Lodging shooting survivor Aaron Bolger, Dixon acted as a spotter for the Kinahans in Spain – as superbly as working in their legitimate businesses.
Dixon, who is a relative of Daniel Kinahan, has been race fitness classes in the now-rebranded MTK gym and also previously worked at the Auld Dubliner bar in Estepona.
Manner, his links to the Kinahans came into focus last year when he was busted by Spanish cops in connection with the murder of Gary Hutch.
Dixon had miserly links to James Quinn, who has been in custody in Spain in connection with the slaughter.
The flash street player
Gardai raided properties linked to various people who are considered to be second and third-tier criminals last year during a crackdown on the Kinahan clique.
One of their prime targets was baby-faced criminal Clayton McMahon (24), from Crumlin.
He is guessed of being a cog in a highly developed criminal network which stretches across the south-inner megalopolis.
Known for his love of the good life, McMahon (above) has dozens of convictions for trespasses, including assault and criminal damage.
Gardai seized a €15,000 guard from McMahon during the raids.
The Arsonist
Arsonist Davin Flynn (upstairs), who has been running the Kinahan cartel’s wing in Mountjoy, is set to be released from remand centre this year.
Flynn is the cartel’s top lag in their B Wing stronghold and has had goes from his pal Daniel Kinahan while serving his sentence.
Every new convict who wants to join cartel associates on the wing has to be approved by Flynn.
He is obliging a sentence for setting fire to the Nirvana head shop in Dublin in 2010. The boutique sold psychoactive substances, which were legal at the time.
Sales of supervise shop drugs put a significant dent in the cartel’s profits. Flynn had 65 foregoing convictions.
The rising mobster
A 24-year-old from Finglas has risen at a gallop to the top of the drugs trade in north=west Dublin in recent times.
He is a pally pal of Karl Hyland (pictured left above) – a nephew of murdered ring boss Martin ‘Marlo’ Hyland – who has links with the cartel.
The immature criminal is believed to be making up to €25,000 a week travelling to Amsterdam with Hyland and other progeny associates.
He also has links to a cartel hitman who fled the country in recent months.
The pubescent thug, who lives in a house with bullet-proof windows and wears a crude gold watch, is said to control a network of 20 associates.
The Pals Grim
Two brothers from Dublin’s north-inner city who are involved in hallucinogenic dealing have been causing havoc in recent months.
The duo are suspected of carrying out a petrol bomb attack on an innocent businessman’s hypothesizes after trying to pressure him to launder money for them through his charge.
Based around the Sheriff Street area, the brothers have a feared repute but have avoided major criminal convictions.
It is believed that their subject has being booming over the last few months – as some of their tournament in the inner city has been forced to keep a low profile because of the Hutch-Kinahan dispute.
Cork’s new heroin boss
A violent gangster, who has a history of attacking and terrorizing his rivals, has become a major player in Cork’s heroin trade.
The mobster has infatuated control of the drug-dealing patch previously controlled by the so-called Heaphy ring – once headed up by veteran dealer John Heaphy, of Kerryhall Parkway in Fairhill.
Gardai believe the new drugs boss has become the leading heroin distributor across huge parts of Cork city and county, and has ties to criminals in Limerick and Dublin.
He is currently coating serious criminal charges and could end up behind bars for a lengthy full stop.
The Penguin distributor
A criminal in his 30s has become one of George ‘the Penguin’ Mitchell’s (chiefly) most trusted drugs distributors.
Based in Co Meath, the criminal bust acts as an agent for Mitchell and supplies a network of mid-level dealers in Dublin, Meath and Co Louth.
Unequivalent to some of his Dublin-based contemporaries, he is said to keep a low-profile and has avoided bigger criminal convictions.
He has lifelong ties to the Hutch clan, but is not believed to have in the offing become involved in the feud with the Kinahan cartel.