Dealers get ‘free hand’ to ply trade
THE drain on garda resources because of the Hutch/kinahan feud gives drug dealers a free pass to openly ply their trade on Dublin’s streets, it has emerged.
A documentary on the pill and pot epidemic sweeping the capital reveals the rise of a new breed of vicious young pushers as gardai focus their energies
elsewhere. Ex-heroin addict Anne Buckley said she was shocked to witness children as young as 12 involved as lookouts and mules.
The 41-year-old who grew up in the inner-city’s Fatima Mansions flats was addicted to heroin and methadone for 17 years but is now six years clean.
The journalism student revisits her old haunts for a TV3 documentary which lifts the lid on the scale of the crisis and an apparent lack of action to deal with it.
She told the Irish Mirror: “I was very shocked because I’ve been out of that environment. Seeing it was pretty scary, to see the ruthlessness with the kids.
“Going after families for drug debts, that is new. I’d heard about it but I hadn’t witnessed it. Kids should not be exposed to that, it’s not normal.” Heroin has been
replaced by high-strength synthetic cannabis and pills such as benzos and zimmos which are being peddled in broad daylight.
Carina O’brien of the Inner City Organisation Network said: “There are a lot of young people under the age of 25 selling these tablets. They can make up to €1,000 a day.
“Kids as young as 12, 13, 14 are being
used as lookouts and mules. This is just the norm for them.”
Community policing forum spokesman Peter O’connor revealed: “With the feud the priority for gardai would be the protection of life. This is a drain on resources.”
■■True Lives: My War on Drugs is on TV3 on Wednesday at 9pm.