GARDA management have pledged to throw every available resource into smashing the drugs trade in Limerick.
Latest data provided by Gardaí shows that detections for possession of drugs for sale or supply in the Limerick Garda Division have rocketed by 47 per cent on 2022.
Drug driving has risen sharply by 56 per cent, according to Garda statistics presented to the city’s joint policing committee.
Arrests for possession of drugs for personal has also soared 51 per cent, however drunk driving has declined by 17 per cent.
Chief Superintendent Derek Smart revealed he had sanctioned ‘Operation Meirle’ which, from December 1, deployed “on the ground, high visibility beat patrols” in the city centre to combat drug related crime, public disorder, aggressive begging, and theft from shops.
Operation Meirle “will be seeking members for overtime 10am to 6pm daily” and Gardaí attached to the unit “will solely focus on beat visibility”, Chief Smart told a meeting of the city’s joint policing committee.
A Garda action plan on drugs, called ‘Operation Feabhsaigh’, which started in late September, remains focused on combating the sale and supply of drugs/open drugs use/chronic anti-social behaviour in St Mary’s Park, where a ‘cocaine supermarket’ had been operating.
This operation was also targeting crime prevention and enforcement in the wider King’s Island historic quarter where drugs are rife, according to local sources.
Chief Smart said ‘Operation Coronation’ – a major Garda response to the activities of drug gangs across Limerick – has been “very successful” and remains “focused on depriving those so engaged in drug trafficking and their proceeds of criminal activity”.
Gangs continue to make a fortune form the illegal drugs market which is fueled by drug taking by the public.
Targeting the proceeds of the sale of drugs in Limerick, Operation Coronation has raided 132 properties, seized €367,000 cash, frozen €421,000 in accounts, recovered €42,000 worth of cocaine, €30,000 cannabis herb and crack cocaine, sized a property abroad as well as four high value vehicles and 11 high end watches, 10 horses including a €50,000 stallion and a €10,000 horse box.
The operation has also recovered two guns and arrested 17 people for alleged money laundering and drugs offences and charged six people with sale and supply of drugs.
Despite the actions of Gardaí, Limerick is, according to experts in drug support services, in the grips of a crack cocaine epidemic that has occurred against a backdrop of inert resources in the Limerick Garda Division.
Over the past five years the number of Gardaí in Limerick has largely remained stagnant.
Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan said Garda management told him it requires an additional “30” Gardaí in the Limerick Division “just to deliver a proper service”.
Deputy Quinlivan praised the efforts of Gardaí who he said were “doing a good job with the resources they have, but they can’t respond if they don’t actually exist and we probably need 40 or 50 additional Gardaí to be honest”.
Deputy Quinlivan, who is a director of the Mid West Drugs and Alcohol Taskforce, said a “feud” between criminals, that has been brewing on the south side of the city, was of major concern and that additional Gardaí were required to patrol the area.
He warned that if Garda headquarters “takes its eye off of Limerick, and the Gardaí aren’t resourced properly, we could go down a bad road we don’t want to go down where we have been before”.
Deputy Quinlivan was referring to a murderous feud between drug gangs which claimed the lives of 19 men, including people with no links to crime who were either killed in a case of mistaken identity or as revenge for assisting the State in prosecuting gang members.
He praised Gardaí’s recent holistic approach to dealing with possession of drugs for personal use, whereby drug users are afforded opportunities to get medical help to deal with addiction rather than being automatically processed through the courts and prison system.
According to the force’s latest statistics, there are (460) Gardaí in the Limerick division, compared to (464) in 2022, (462) in 2021, (467) in 2020, and (458) in 2019.
Deputy Quinlivan said he has submitted a motion to the JPC requesting “the provision of additional Garda resources in the city centre” as well as a Garda “action plan to target ongoing drug dealing and associated crime in the Weston and Prospect areas”.
Chief Superintendent Derek Smart told the JPC that an additional third community policing unit had resulted in a 60 per cent increase in “supply of drug captures” as well as a 95 per cent rise in “simple possession” detections.
This has restored some calm to drug ridden communities and allowed Gardaí “greater engagement” with stakeholders which has also led to persons being excluded from areas where they have been engaging in criminality, Deputy Quinlivan said.
