Gardaí target street dealing

Gardaí on Leeside have stopped “quite an amount” of drugs coming into Cork city it was revealed this week as new crime figures were announced.

The figures for the Cork City Garda Division showed that gardaí have targeted those with drugs for sale, supply and personal use, as well as manufacturing, with more seizures in the first eight months of this year compared to the same period in 2019.

The cultivation or manufacturing or drugs rose from five to 11, sale or supply rose by 66 per cent from 125 to 207 while gardaí also recorded a 33 per cent increase in the number of times people were in possession of drugs for personal use, from 586 to 780.

The figures were presented by Chief Superintendent Barry McPolin during Monday’s Cork City Joint Policing Committee meeting. The meeting was the first one to be held virtually due to Covid-19 restrictions.

He said: “The rise can be put down to the fact that we bolstered the strength of the divisional and district drug units across Cork city. We were meant to do it earlier on in the year but with the onset of Covid-19, we postponed it until June.

“This is along with the City Centre Policing Unit which is a unit of one sergeant and eight gardaí in Cork city centre and we targeted street dealing.”

Chief Superintendent McPolin said that they have been successful in clamping down on the sale and supply of drugs.

He added: “We’ve intercepted quite an amount of drugs coming into the city, not only by public transport but in private vehicles too.

“There was great work done by those units and the stats speak for themselves.”

Weapons

Weapons offences also saw an increase from January-August 2020 compared to the same months last year.

There was one incident of discharging a firearm in the first eight months of 2019 with four recorded this year, while possession of a firearm was up from one to eight. Possession of weapons that are not firearms, rose from 57 per cent, from 106 to 166.

“Weapons that aren’t firearms can be a knife, a screwdriver or a weapon that could be used to harm. These increases can be put down to increased patrolling and active search policies of suspected persons on the street,” said the Chief Superintendent.

Arson

Meanwhile arson saw a rise from 65 to 66, a two per cent increase from 2019 to 2020.

Criminal damage, that does not include arson) fell from 807 to 673, a decrease of 17 per cent for the same time period.