Heroin dealing in Cork to be targeted

Gardaí are planning further undercover anti-heroin operations in Cork City following Operation Emerson which led to the recent arrest of 23 street dealers.

Chief Supt Michael Finn told a meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee (JPC) that six months of hard work had gone into Operation Emerson, which saw undercover gardaí travelling down from Dublin and pretending to be heroin addicts in order to catch dealers.

The senior garda said it took some time for the undercover gardaí to build up the trust of dealers and this resulted in the officers eventually being able to make 52 purchases of the Class A drug from them.

He said local drugs squad officers could never have been used in such an operation because the dealers would have known them.

“It takes time and resources and it can often be quite dangerous for the garda involved [in such undercover operations]. It takes time to build up trust with them [dealers],” Chief Supt Finn said.

He said the dealers were charged with 82 different offences and that a number of them will stand trial in the Circuit Criminal Court, where they are likely to end up “with significant enough penalties”.

However, he warned that while they might be off the streets for some time others will take their place and further undercover operations like Operation Emerson will have to be mounted to keep the pressure up on dealers.

Next time different undercover officers will be used.

The chief superintendent said Operation Emerson had targeted street level dealers, while the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) was targeting the bigger players.

A number of councillors praised the garda operation, which Chief Supt Finn said couldn’t have been mounted without valuable information coming from the public.

He added that the only way to prevent the scourge of heroin was for more education to be given to young people of the dire consequences of the drug’s use.

“The whole education and prevention side is so important to change the heroin culture which is like a cancer. It’s not a solution to arrest all the addicts, we try and get them into diversion programmes. It’s a priority for us,” he said.

Deputy Ciarán Lynch (Labour) said there might be a need to look at creating a juvenile detention centre in the region.

He maintained the rise in heroin use in Cork was linked to the closure of the prison on Spike Island in 2004.

The TD said young offenders were then sent to St Pat’s in Dublin where they were developing the habit from mixing with heroin addicts or getting involved with gangs who supplied the drug.

Lord mayor of Cork Cllr Chris O’Leary (SF) also praised the gardaí for Operation Emerson and said the message had to go out that the public should supply every bit of information they can on those who are peddling the drug.