The unit will be comprised of 100 Gardaí, sergeants and inspectors, working a two-rota system of 12-hour shifts.

The assistant garda commissioner has pleaded with youths not to get involved in the drugs trade at any level. We must provide initiatives to help, writes Cormac O’Keeffe.

People in positions of power need to go out to communities battling drugs, crime and neglect and put resources into them and give people living there “a chance”, a conference on young people and gangs has heard.

Intimidation and violence drives local drug markets and enables drug bosses to keep communities “insecure, fearful, and subordinate”, research shows.