Report Paul Murphy
The ongoing success of the Gardai in drug seizures is clearly illustrated in the stats for the opening months of the year – €1.54m seizure cocaine and cannabis in Limerick, €20,000 seizure cannabis and crack cocaine + 60 scramblers and scooters Dublin, €500,000 cannabis in Swords. In one two-day operation in Dublin last October they seized €8.2m worth of drugs. However, there is one aspect of the illicit drug trade that remains increasingly difficult to detect and investigate – drug intimidation.
In one comment on the situation last year the Gardai said it identified drug-related intimidation as a “huge priority” and a “horrendous aspect of the drug trade that caused devastating impacts on families and communities. In the last few weeks Meath Live reported on a case in Trim Circuit Court where the mother of a youth who had become mixed up with drug use told her heartbreaking story of how she and her family were threatened by a thug and his friends who were pursuing her over her son’s drug debt.
She had to give in to the man’s initial threats when he called to her door with his demands. She withdrew €6,000 from the family savings and handed it over. Later, when he called again, this time accompanied by two of his friends, with demands for further payment she told him she would not pay and stuck to her word. She is one of approximately 2,500 people who have reported drug intimidation to the authorities over the last five years.
In her victim impact statement read to the court, the woman, who has lived in Navan for the past 20 years, told how when a man called to her door in the run-up to Christmas her two youngest children were in bed and she was trying to organise “the last few bits for Christmas”. The man was aggressive and not taking no for an answer. “I was so shaken after this and I cannot forget the fear I felt”. This was two Christmases ago “and the nightmare hasn’t stopped”.
She had to get ring doorbells and cameras installed at her house. She had worked all her life and was now unable to work. Her physical and mental health has deteriorated and she suffers from anxiety and depression. She has isolated herself from her family and friends and is afraid to go out for a social night in Navan.
Cllr. Alan Lawes gives an insight to the realities that families intimidated for ‘drug debts’ face.
Independent Cllr Alan Lawes and his family have been at the sharp end of intimidation, although unrelated to drugs. After he spoke out about antisocial behaviour in his area a brick was thrown through the window of the family home. But he says it won’t stop him speaking out about thuggery. He believes that the statistics on the reporting of drug intimidation – 2,500 in five years – is “only the tip of the iceberg”.
He believes it is widespread in the community and causing terrible fear among families who feel unable to speak up. “I have dealt with two of these cases recently and I believe that that figure of 2,500 reports to the authorities is only the tip of the iceberg and really the Gardai have to find other ways of doing these guys any way they can because trying to get people to give evidence against these guys is extremely difficult considering the level of intimidation people are experiencing”.
“I know of one case in Navan where a young guy was trapped into drugs by, first of all, dealers getting him addicted and then, because of his addiction, getting him to deal drugs. And this young lad tried to leave, tried to get out of it and his home was attacked three times. And they were frightening attacks”.
There were windows being put in at nighttime, a gas bottle was thrown through the window, the cars were smashed outside. “The family were absolutely terrified and these are a good and decent family. I know of another man who was terrified. He knew what he was doing, he as dealing but trying to get out, trying to go straight. He told me at one stage ‘I know too much, they won’t let me out’.
He was taken out in a car and threatened by a group of thugs that are drug dealing around the area. The guards need to become more inventive – try to get them on tax, get the Cab onto them, doing more checks on them. There are drug dealers in this town and they are supposed to be on the dole and they’re going on foreign holidays, they are supposed to have 65-inch TVs in their homes, driving powerful cars. There’s other ways of getting them rather than depending on frightened people to come forward to give evidence against them”.
He remembers from his days in inner Dublin when, during court hearings on criminal cases, some Gardai gave evidence from behind courtroom screens. “Now that doesn’t instill much confidence in people who are being threatened by thugs. “There’s a huge amount of fear out there and it just needs the Gardai to be more creative”.
