A Clare Government TD believes drug dealers in this county are part of a ‘spider’s web’ of criminal networks throughout Europe.
It comes as Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has refuted suggestions floated in Clare that Irish criminal law is ‘soft’.
Commissioner Drew Harris attended this week’s meeting of the Clare joint policing committee, making a short presentation to members about matters in this county and nationwide.
The meeting heard, among other issues, how ‘progress’ on the Clare/Tipperary Garda Division merger is expected next year, while this county is understood to be in line to receive extra resources on the ground accounted for in Budget 2022.
Concerns were also raised about the levels of drug dealing in this county and the Midwest region by Clare Fianna Fail TD Cathal Crowe.
The Meelick deputy believes the Irish criminal law system is coming across as ‘soft’, and that Clare drug dealers are becoming tangled up in a spider’s web of European networks.
This week’s JPC meeting heard that hundreds of thousands of euro worth of drugs have been seized in this county so far in 2021.
These include high profile seizures in the areas of Kilrush, Ennis, Killaloe, Kilmihil and Shannon.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris is rejecting Deputy Crowe’s asserion that criminal law here is ‘soft’, and believes a sufficient strategy is already in place to suppress large and medium size drug dealers in the community.
