'Heroin overdose' man dead

A man was found dead in Antrim today after taking a suspected heroin overdose.

The middle-aged victim was discovered by the ambulance service at a house in Regents Park, Ballymena, Co Antrim, shortly after 7am. A post-mortem examination will be carried out later.

The man, believed to have been in his thirties, was named locally as Denis Dunlop, who lived in a red-bricked terraced home in the Doury Road Estate.

Residents gathered in hushed clusters on street corners as the black hearse took the remains away.

One person, who did not want to be named, said the man was well-known locally.

“It is such a shock, it is all anybody is talking about at the minute,” he said.

Padraig McShane, chairman of the nearby Dunclug residents group, said Ballymena was a major drop-off point for organised criminals smuggling in hard drugs.

He claimed paramilitaries were behind the supply and said police needed to do more to tackle the issue.

This is the second drugs tragedy to hit the town within a week.

On Friday, Michael McCrory, 20, was found dead at a house after a heroin overdose.

His father Seamus, who buried his son on Sunday, warned yesterday that there could be further deaths within weeks.

Sinn Féin Assembly member Daithi McKay called for the establishment of a community forum to work with police in combating the matter.

“It is an epidemic. We had a meeting with the police to discuss the issue of drugs and we made it clear that more needs to be done and more resources need to be allocated.

“Drug dealing and usage is responsible for theft and anti-social behaviour so the extra resources are justifiable.”

He added that local abuse clinics were seeing up to 40 people a week with chronic drugs problems.