A GARDA operation focusing on the sale and supply of drugs in the King’s Island area of Limerick City is set to return.
Operation Feabhsaigh, originally set up in September 2023, had the main focus of enforcement and crime prevention in the King’s Island area, targeting the sale and supply of cocaine and heroin.
Now, Limerick Chief Superintendent Derek Smart has confirmed that An Gardaí Síochána is seeking to bring the operation back into force to further crack down on drug use in the area.
In a written response to Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan at a recent Joint Policing Committee meeting, Chief Superintendent Derek Smart said that his Garda colleagues are working on an application to relaunch the operation.
A letter from the Chief Superintendent, seen by the Limerick Post, said that the operation was “very successful” and that “Limerick City North Community Engagement and Crime Functional Area are preparing an application to relaunch Operation Feabhsaigh in a similar format as seen in 2023”.
The operation initially targeted what was known as a ‘cocaine supermarket’ in St Mary’s Park, with the relaunched operation expected to follow the same aim and combat open drug use and drug dealing in the area and its associated anti-social behaviour.
Operation Feabhsaigh was a “successful operation” according to Chief Superintendent Smart, with “number of successful prosecutions”.
The letter also stated that a number of criminal prosecutions “are still pending which are as a result of co-operation with the Criminal Assets Bureau”.
Large quantities of cash, property, luxury items, and assets were seized by Gardaí and the Criminal Assets Bureau under Operation Feabhsaigh and Operation Coronation, while a number of “high profile” cases have been before the Special Criminal Court “which has resulted in a number of positive outcomes,” Chief Superintendent Smart’s letter stated.
