Three houses were raided in Kilkenny yesterday morning as part of the local Garda drugs unit’s attempt to stamp out drugs in Kilkenny city and county.
The houses in Hebron Park were targeted by the District Drugs Unit and a number of searches were carried out under the misuse of drugs act.
A quantity of diamorphine - better known as heroin - was seized in the raid.
One man was arrested and was being detained and questioned by Kilkenny Gardai yesterday and was still in custody at time of going to press. A file is to be prepared for the DPP and the man will appear before the court services.
Speaking to the Kilkenny Advertiser, Sergeant John Hanlon said that there is constant surveillance taking place in Kilkenny at all times by Gardai and this raid came about as a result of ongoing intelligence gathered by the unit.
“We are targeting users and suppliers of drugs in Kilkenny at the moment. We carried out this raid this morning following ongoing surveillance and once we had gathered sufficient intelligence to act, we did so.”
At this stage many of the local people involved in the drugs culture in Kilkenny would be known to the Gardai but many users who are being caught by the Gardai recently are new to the scene.
“We have been confiscating heroin, cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy from people on the streets and from searching people in cars - this is happening on a continuous basis. But we will never rid the county of drugs - the problem will always be there but we are trying to curb it and these searches are helping us to do that. Unfortunately, heroin has reached Kilkenny and this is the worst drug because it has such a high dependancy level and this leads the users to crime in order to feed their habit. Heroin use will always lead to other criminal activity. We believe it is coming here from the bigger centres but mainly Dublin.”
Gardai are arresting and questioning culprits on a regular basis and are happy with the progress of the District Drugs Unit.
“Our operations are on-going now and we are happy that we are getting information and acting on it when necessary and arrests are being made,” said Sergeant Hanlon.
Speaking of the raids yesterday, local councillor and liaison officer Marie Fitzpatrick said that she was not surprised that raids were taking place and she was pleased to hear that the Gardai were acting on information that they had.
“This is going on for a while and I am happy that something is happening at ground level. Hebron Park needs to clean up and I am sure that this issue will be raised in upcoming meetings of Kilkenny Borough Council. We have to take responsibility for people who we house in areas where drug dealers are present. At this stage people are fed up. There are supports there with liaison officers but they can only deal with the tip of the ice-berg.
“I would also be very concerned if €30 million will be taken from family resource centres - this would be detrimental to some communities in Kilkenny and this issue needs to be addressed. If these services are closed or removed there will be little scope for helping the people affected by the problems,” she said.
