Dublin People - Gardai to take action on drug dealing

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Gardai to take action on drug dealing

Friday, 04 April 2008

Gardaí have promised to take action to eradicate open drug dealing at a Southside shopping centre in response to claims that they are not doing enough to tackle the problem.
Local sources have informed Southside People that crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin are openly for sale on an ongoing basis in the vicinity of the Neilstown Shopping Centre in South West Dublin.
Dublin Metropolitan West Region Chief Superintendent John Twomey recently organised a meeting with local officers, councillors and community representatives in Neilstown in a joint bid to tackle crime in the area more effectively.
Approximately 70 people attended the meeting and it is understood the illicit drug dealing in the area was one of the most controversial issues discussed.
During the meeting Cllr Shane O’Connor (SF) urged the gardaí to increase patrols around the shopping centre in a bid to stamp out the problem.

He said the issue had been one of the greatest concerns to local people since he become a councillor in 2004.
“People in the area have suffered with this issue for far too long,” he said. “If drugs are being openly dealt and it is perceived that you can get away with it, it is no wonder some of the younger people are turning to bigger crimes in the area.
“It’s nearly an accepted part of the North Clondalkin community because the gardaí have not eradicated it,” he added. “Certainly at the next meeting of the JPC [Joint Policy Committee] in three months’ time I want to get feedback from the community that the gardaí are doing their jobs.”
A worker in one of the units at the shopping centre, who did not wish to be named, told Southside People that the dealers had created “an atmosphere of fear” and said gardaí were not committing enough resources to tackling the problem.
She also said that children as young as nine or 10 years of age were being used by the dealers to alert them to the presence of the gardaí.
“People have been intimidated; they are afraid and their bags have been snatched,” she revealed. “When there are a lot of drugs coming in, there would be gangs of people around here.
“Sometimes they come into our shop and they hide the drugs in a pocket and then run out again to get away from the police.
“The drug dealing takes place in the car park but also right outside the shop doors. These people are blatantly doing it,” she added. “This can happen in the morning, the afternoon or the evening time.”
A person who works with local drug users confirmed that dealers were openly selling crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin at the centre.
She said the problem was getting worse and that in recent years more and more users in the area were progressing onto harder drugs.
“The research we have done recently indicates that people’s perceptions are that it [the drug problem] is getting worse and is changing in terms of what is being used.”
She added that while treatment for heroin users was available in the area, the abuse of drugs such as crack cocaine and cocaine was a relatively new phenomenon. She said there was a lack of services for people who were addicted to these drugs.
Chief Superintendent Twomey said gardaí intended to address all the problems raised at the recent meeting.
“The meeting looked at community policing and how we deliver our service to the local community,” he told Southside People. “It’s about the guards and the community working together on the problems in the area.
“This isn’t just about the police,” he added. “We are all supposedly on the one side in this.
“We are always evaluating patrols and rearranging and reorganising, so that’s an ongoing process. The issues that affect us today will be different from the issues that will affect us tomorrow. It is a constant process.”

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