Pressure on Cork and Limerick drug czars must continue

ONE of the country’s most senior Garda officers says the force must keep up the pressure on heroin dealers in Cork and Limerick, otherwise the drug will blight those areas in the years ahead.

Assistant commissioner Ray McAndrew, who is due to retire today, said he saw how heroin ravaged Dublin’s inner city when he worked with the Crime Task Force there in the 1980s.

When he was promoted to chief superintendent in February 1996 and arrived in Cork, he was pleasantly surprised to see the drug hadn’t taken a foothold, either there or in Limerick.

However, heroin had raised its ugly head in the past three to four years and he’d put extra resources into combating it.

“The extra resources put in across the southern region have led to some very good detections. But there is no room for complacency. Drugs continue to be one of the biggest threats we face. This is going to be an ongoing battle,” he said.

For the past three years, he and other senior officers have spent a lot of time tackling gang feuding in Limerick, which has claimed several lives.

The assistant commissioner said more than 50 people were currently behind bars in relation to that ongoing investigation.

A huge breakthrough came when he oversaw an intelligence operation, which included liaison with British police, led to the seizure of “heavy weaponry”, including rocket propelled grenades which were destined to be used by one of the rival gangs.

“If this hadn’t been done it would have upped the level of violence. It could have been a most serious situation. It was top-quality detective work by the team responsible,” the senior Garda said.

“In addition, the Government and the commissioner have committed 80 additional gardaí to community policing in Limerick, to support the local communities in the city’s regeneration project. I’m heartened with the substantial decrease in gun crime in Limerick this year and I’m hopeful this trend will continue.”

The assistant commissioner, who has more than 2,100 gardaí and 200 civilian support staff under his control, also oversaw intelligence operations that thwarted two attempted tiger kidnappings, the latest of which happened in Cork earlier this year, when an attempt was made to extort money from a businessman.

He said he was immensely proud of the way gardaí ensured prosecutions of the four men involved in the biggest drugs haul in the history of the State.

They were jailed for a total of 85 years, following the seizure of €440 million of cocaine at Dunlough bay, off Mizen Head.

“I’d commend the way the team followed through with the prosecution. The case involved breaking new ground with tracking technology and interaction with up to 16 other national police forces,” assistant commissioner McAndrew said.

“I’d like to pay tribute to the great leadership shown by my management team and by all the gardaí I have worked with. I have made a lot of friends up and down the country through the job,” he said.