A CONCERNED local councillor raised the issue at City Hall around “queues” forming regularly in the People’s Park in Limerick City of people attempting to buy drugs from dealers clad in balaclavas.
Fine Gael councillor Sarah Kiely told Gardaí at last week’s meeting of the Joint Policing Sub-Committee of the Metropolitan District that she had received a number of worried calls from locals regarding alleged drug dealing in the People’s Park on her way to the meeting.
“There seems to be a kiosk in the park where people are actively drug dealing. It seems to be like clockwork on a Monday morning and there’s a queue there this morning apparently,” Cllr Kiely told gathered council and Garda members.
“These lads are in balaclavas, ye may be aware of it, but I was asked to bring this up as an active issue. I can ask those people to make themselves known if need be, or if they want to deal directly with ye, I am sure they will be helpful,” she added.
Superintendent Paul Reidy, of Roxboro Garda Station, told Cllr Kiely he was aware of a number of young people smoking e-cigareets and hanging around the People’s Park area.
“Maybe a lot of time they are not committing offences, but often can give the impression of an intimidatory kind of presence,” he suggested.
Superintendent Reidy went on to invite park rangers to be more proactive and call Gardaí when situations are escalating or when tensions are rising with different groups.
“Ring in every time. Unless we know about it, we can’t respond to it,” he said.
“We did an operation only a couple of days ago where a local premises was raided. That premises had been buying vapes and selling them to underage persons.
“As part of the operation, a number of vapes were seized and referred to the Health and Safety Authority, I think that might have an impact. It might have had a detrimental impact on the locality while it was operating,” he said.
