Hostile takeovers: Dealers sell from the homes of vulnerable addicts

Drug dealers in Ballymun and other disadvantaged areas are targeting vulnerable people and taking over properties to use as a base for their illicit trade. Cormac O’Keeffe examines how criminals are keeping communities ‘insecure, fearful, and subordinate’

Eddie D'Arcy, recently retired community youth worker with 40 years experience and part-time lecturer in DKIT. Picture: Moya Nolan

When a garda was shot during a forced entry of a house in Ballymun in December 2017, officials in Dublin City Council became aware of their first case of home “takeovers”.

Also known as “hostile takeovers” or, abroad, as “cuckooing”, it is where drug gangs move in on the home of a vulnerable person – often because of addiction – and basically set up shop.