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PETTY CRIME IN Dublin’s North Inner City has spiralled since June after activities carried out by a drug unit targeting low-level suppliers stopped following attacks on officers.
While the official figures have not yet been released, sources as well as local representatives have described the upsurge in low-level crime as “extremely worrying”.
A large number of drug users have also made their way back to areas such as Phibsborough and the North Circular Road. Officers believe this is because there is a lower police presence in the area.
Both the NCR and Phibsborough were previously the target of a Divisional Drugs Unit which carried out undercover operations across the area.
Dealers, users and other petty criminals were routinely searched and had drugs confiscated. Due to the high garda presence, many users and dealers who were frequenting the area moved back to locations closer to the city centre.
However, following a high-profile acid attack on a garda based in this drugs unit, patrols of the area by the drug unit have effectively stopped.
A spokesman for the Garda Press Office said that the Divisional Drugs Unit is still fully operational and that a number of new officers have recently been added to it.
However, the garda who was the victim of the acid attack was leading various investigations into the Lithuanian gangs. This included a number of undercover operations targeting low level dealers.
There is still a garda presence by those attached to uniform divisions but the frequency of patrols as a whole has significantly reduced. There are still armed support patrols in the area but their main focus is to prevent serious attacks.
This means that the dealers and users who used the NCR and Phibsborough to purchase drugs are slowly returning to the areas, resulting in an increase in crime.
In the past three months, there has been an upsurge in reported criminal activity in the area. Phone thefts have risen, so too have muggings and threatening behaviour. Callouts to shopping centres and other public areas have increased in recent weeks and look to be following the trend which started to develop in the middle of June this year.
Local reps have called for more of an overt garda presence in the area to combat the spike.
Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan, who lives in the affected area, said that drug crime and anti-social behaviour are things she sees every single day.
She told TheJournal.ie: “What we’ve seen now is an increase in crime in the area. The numbers have increased because there’s no visibility out there. Not as many gardaí are being able to stop and search people they suspect of being involved in criminal activity.
“We were told at a recent council meeting that there’s an extra 40 gardaí coming in to the area but we’re not feeling the benefit at all. These new gardaí need to gain confidence before they go out there. It’s obviously a very intimidating job to start off in.
I live here. I see people outside clinics or begging outside shops, drinking in public, causing trouble in parks. It’s unworkable – families have been calling me saying there is nowhere to bring their young family because the parks are just too dangerous.
“I haven’t seen any improvements. My thoughts go out to that garda who was attacked as well. That’s absolutely awful. But what I want to see is those 40 gardaí coming into our district being trained up and on the streets as soon as possible.”
The Lithuanian drug dealers who are back dealing on the NCR and Phibsborough have been in operation in Ireland for the last decade or so. The gang is run by two men, who are originally from the Kaunas and Plunge areas of the Eastern European country.
As of now, gardaí believe this gang is also operational in other parts of Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Kerry, Galway and Belfast.
Several garda units, including those who specialise in human trafficking investigations, are aware of their activities. It is understood a high number of young Lithuanian men and women have been forced into criminality by the gang.
Its modus operandi for recruiting new members is to promise young and poor people from Eastern Europe that they will get legitimate jobs when they arrive into Ireland. But when they do get here, their passports are taken from them and they are forced into either the drug or sex trade, depending on their gender.
In fact, gardaí believe that a teenager who only arrived into the country in the last three months may have been the person to carry out an acid attack on a garda who is investigating the workings of this gang.
Gardaí said they are still investigating the acid attack on the garda.
A spokesman for the Garda Press Office previously told TheJournal.ie: “As the incident referred to is an ongoing investigation it would be inappropriate to comment further.
“In general terms, any incident of this nature is examined and depending on the circumstances Garda members are provided with support, including but not limited to, the appointment of Family Liaison Officers and personal and home security advice as appropriate.”
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When I was growing up, people were afraid of Garda. They were big strong men who took no BS. Stories of Lugs Brannigan we’re still rife. Garda have you a good clatter if you were out of line. Now we’ve all gone PC we have mini gards, stringent snowflake laws and Garda can’t do anything. Some of these scuts need the old fashioned into the back of a black Mariah and given a few taps of a phone book to set them straight. Young lads today neither respect nor fear the Garda and their parent either don’t know or don’t care what they’re at. Zero tolerance, tough Garda and even tougher sentences would sort it out quick enough.
@Seanniemac1983: George Soros has made the modern man weak.
@Seanniemac1983: burning books , burning fallen women and people trafficking. Good times indeed
@Greedylocks: Feminist Liberal nonsense.
@specialsue: Oh look – another fake account banging on about George Soros.
@Seán Ó Briain: Looks like I struck a nerve. We’re not supposed to mention him.
@specialsue: Nah, it’s just predictable that the only people talking about him are newly created accounts with either deleted facebook pages or little to no followers on twitter.
@Seán Ó Briain: It is predictable that people who mention George Soros gave their accounts deleted.
@Seanniemac1983: ya because the gardai have a proven track record of being judge jury & executioner & see how that worked out. People who commit serious crime are a reflection of a broken society. We have many people born into a world with no hope. No hope equals no respect. If all you have in life is being born struggling in a society that has no respect for you why should you respect society.
@Mjhint: Bet you wouldn’t think that if a skanger mugged one of your kids.
@Mjhint: All true. That said, there should be no tolerance for anyone attacking a Garda, that should be something you expect serious retribution for (within the law). The gaurds having to stop policing an area because of an attack is insane, it will create more attacks if the result is good for them. Policing should be upped in said area 5 fold. Easier said than done of course.
@Bilbo Baggins: if the guards can be intimidated into not doing there job then society has failed. I can’t believe this is being stood over by management. An attack on the police is an attack on each citizen. This should have been dealt with by resolve and intensifying of operations on those suspected. All within the law.
@specialsue: got lost fake account
@specialsue: Working class mother my balls
@specialsue: Who is George Soros.? Serious question as never heard of him.
@Mjhint: hard upbringing your honour. Societies fault your honour
@specialsue: So you want a 1930′s solution. round them up and put them into concentration camps?
@Seán Ó Briain: He is right though.
@bings: George Soros is legend. Supports countless good causes/campaigns around the world. Right wingers hate him.
@limofax: Still never heard of him. But if he does something positive for good causes then fair play to him
@specialsue: good job. Blame the Jewish guy.
@Dublin Northsider: yes our society is failing too many & its consistent. Change that change society. Your position has been tried. Jail doesn’t work. It just teaches more crime & violence.
@Bilbo Baggins: retribution doesn’t work. If jail was the answer America would have no crime.
@specialsue: I would say you could be correct but that would not me correct in that situation. Crime is really dangerous in Ireland now & we have never got a handle on it. Time that changed.
@Mjhint: maybe parents should raise their children to have hope and make sure they get a proper education and grow up to respect themselves and others. But some parents just don’t care, they let their kids run riot and obviously don’t care about their future which is very sad. Anyone from anywhere can be whatever they want if they put in the work.
@specialsue:
Are you weak?
@Sam Harms: I’m a single father who has been alienated. I do my best in a poor situation for my children but my fears of them getting into these gangs & crime worries me beyond explanation. I made some poor choices for my children & their mother has no idea what she’s doing so I’m the perfect example of what goes wrong. The pressures on parents today assure mistakes & then because of the way society is set up a child falls down the rabbit whole & there’s no support. If a child goes astray do you think we should cut them loose or should we be able to get support to steer them back. Jail appears to be for criminals to learn more about crime & drug abuse. It’s not a place to rehabilitate young offenders.
@Mjhint: oberstown is not exactly doing wonders for them. They have access to to kinds of professional in there to try and rehabilitate them and treating them with kids gloves on is not working .if and they start to go off the rails ,that’s whwn you need to catch them. Give them a hard sentence straight off the bat and it might shock them into reality .then it’s their choice afterwards which path they want to chose in life .
The tail wagging the dog! our bleeding heart politicians allowed this to foster. Need a radical overhaul. Guards need tasers and active approach to tackling this
@David Thornton: They don’t need tasers they need to win back the trust of the people.
@Dot Com: untermenschen
@Dot Com: ya cause that’ll help them. Idiot.
@Dot Com: the more I read that comment the more stupid it actually sounds. You moron.
@Dot Com: They need to be armed. Time AGS stopped being guardians of the peace and started to uphold the law.
@Dot Com: they need guns to win back the trust of the dealers, the scrotes and the filth that infest our streets. They also need to batter the heads of these bags of excrement.
@Ohhh_reeally: is it really necessary to be personally offensive by calling someone an “idiot” for sharing their view?
@Ruaridgeback: When you get near the bone of things, certain people get a bit upset, truth hurts and insults fly.
Guaranteed that if water meters were being installed in the area there would be no shortage of aggressive Gardai to protect the installers. Or if Take Back the City took over an empty property you would have an importation of masked paramilitaries from across the border and the Gardai masked heavy mob would descend on the area.
Ordinary people have to take “personal responsibility” and fend for themselves, FG just aren’t interested.
@Dot Com: why are we letting foreigners into our country that have criminal records ?
@Teresa Ryan: guardians of the peace! Lol
@Scorpionvenomm: European open borders. The word is out, Ireland is a soft touch. Attack the police and they will back off and leave you to it.
@Dot Com: some people have never had respect for the guards and never will and then they teach their children the same. I saw a 12 year old with a picture on fb the other day saying “f**on the police they’re pigs”!
We need restoration of Garda patrols nationwide, there seems littlr to no everyday Garda presence walking around the streets of our towns and cities.
@David Lafferty FCCA: body cams and Glocks
Days of “on u you go now “are gone
@David Lafferty YMCA: Gardai should have the right to shoot on sight.
@specialsue: Then they will be shot on sight.
@Bilbo Baggins: from the hard man with a fake profile
@Owwwwnnnn: eh I think you jumped the gun there a little, you reckon I just threatened to shoot a guard? or is it more likely my opinion is that arming guards as standard is a bad idea?
Not dealing with crap like this leads to people like Trump, Farage, LePen gaining a mandate.
The idea & fact that there are “Lithuanian” drug gangs operating with impunity is fodder for all kinds of future trouble.
Regular law abiding Lithuanians will suffer from such reactions.
How is it that the Gardai and media know all about what these guys are up to but we still can’t lock them up or make their lives so awkward that they choose to leave the state.
We can’t keep building suburbs and ignoring great areas like the NCR.
@Tom: With our borders opened to allow all types of criminals into Ireland to add to our own the Gardai are Left with batons to tackle these inbreds, we need to upgrade the Garda weapons to match the current crime spree and with obviously zero tolerance.
@Ger Murphy: firstly, while I’ve no problem arming police with tasers do you trust that they’ll be used exclusively where appropriate? Because I certainly don’t. Secondly, when it comes to escalation where do tut draw the line? Body armour and assault rifles for rank and file perhaps because that’s the level drug gangs are up to.
Rather than becoming a paramilitary force it would be more effective for gardai to have a greater patrol presence with sentencing in line with the gravity of the crime. I might not have much faith in the police service but the penalty for an attack on an on duty officer should be incredibly severe.
@Shane McGettrick: same goes for intimidation or threats off duty obviously. Your mention of open borders is also a fallacy. The most violent crimes in the history of the state, and all murders of gardai have been carried out by Irish citizens.
@Ger Murphy: yes get cause criminals can’t get across borders ??? Absolutely no common sense , there wouldn’t be any intelligence on what are and would be European gangs anyway if it weren’t for open borders !
Only a muppet police force stands down when confronted by criminals
@dublincomments: It makes no sense from a leadership point of view and only makes it more dangerous for guards in the long run
@dublincomments: I just don’t understand. So. What are they doing now, hiding in offices now? Or finally getting their tactical drivers training? This shouts Gardai are cowards to all criminals, they can just get up and feel free to make everyone’s lives a nightmare. Great job Gardai. Great job.
Vigilantly groups. Affective and cheap solution.
@David Linehan: where do we sign up? ;)
Three strikes and your out! No 100+ prior convictions…
Remember when the state told us the hunt for republicans were draining the finances of the state when the heroin epidemic in Dublin occurred. Now it’s worse all over Ireland. Of course using garda resources to protect the monster called Irish water or the occupation of derelict property, the garda resources are put to full use.
I would also put this spiral down to an upsurge in Crack- Cocaine use. I grew up in England where Crack and heroin use was at epidemic levels of use. That was 20 yrs ago. Were as a heroin user is an opportunistic crook. Shoplifting and the likes. A crack addict wants his next fix and a.s.a.p… This is were we see the spike in muggings and violent robberies. The Garda need the resources to nip this in the bud before it gets any worse. Because it will.
Need for tougher sentencing. Just read any court reports and these people often have 80 plus convictions, getting out on a sob story. Move the drug treatment centre from amiens street, less social housing in the inner city and open these houses to affordable housing.
These people need to be locked up for 30 years.
It’s more than likely the very same people complaining their kids can’t go out, were threatening families of the Gardai a few weeks ago. Bleeding the whole system of resources and than moan when they don’t get what they want.
@Jonney Carson: The homeless centre in tallagh is full with foreigners. no irish. what does that tell you.
I live in Dublin 7 and wouldn’t walk through Phisborough in broad day light but it is evident its pushing further up the rd into Cabra. From drug users using, begging, and fighting with each other, the roma gypsies occupying every building possible on NCR who are no better and let rob and fleece who and where they like with no consequences.. it’s a disgrace on the gardas part. They know who is responsible for what and even prior to the attack, just walk on by. There has been substantial changes in Stoneybatter, for the good, very similar issues were sorted there but I cant see the same happening here. There’s no pride of place in phis area.. from anyone. Its not even surprising they can pin point those responsible for the drug dealing and refuse to act.
Listen to you lot! Lol! Have you not figured it out? We don’t pay the Gardai enough to care, no pride or loyalty because we don’t care.
@Fred Conlan: “we” … sheep always follow the shepherd, and we all know where they end up
They should double the guards presence.
And park patrol cars outside these guys houses.
Instead they’ve sent the message that the acid attack was a success.
We have lost our right to kick these thugs out. The EU is a criminals dream come true.
@Toby Thedogk: incorrect. If a none Irish National is convicted of a crime Gardai can apply to the Courts to have that person removed from the State, regardless if they are Europeans or not.
@Toby Thedogk: Nonsense, there is no such thing as EU legislation that prohibits a member state from chucking out an EU national if that individual has committed crimes in the state.
Pulling out the Garda due to one acid attack sends a dangerous message. The police presence and active response to illegal behavior on the streets is clearly effective. It was going after the gang leaders that brought on the attack. I agree the Garda are underpaid. The Garda and the Army never have a shortage of applicants, do they? These are secure positions with benefits, an increasing rarity outside the IT professions.
savages
As usual you smack on about nothing you know to be true. The Gardai are gone soft because of the same idiots who say they’re heavy handed, but then say they’re weak if they don’t. Where’s the middle for these people, who – whether you like it or not are protecting your family
Can’t blame the guards with the old and archaic laws that they have to work with, and then their is the DPP. Sort out the written law of the land so the guards can actually do their job
If the moral in the guards are low and very little trust in the guards and the constant arguments in public media how can they do a proper job for the state and the Irish law abiding citizen.
We need me Garda in Ballymun!
@marian: more*
@specialsue: And if everyone just obeyed the law and got along we wouldn’t need any….
@specialsue: Great who needs the guards just give them parenting classes? Ridiculous comment.
@Vintage Summers: nah it was spot on .
As terrible as the attack was on the officer was, it’s a bit like throwing their toys out of the pram. One of theirs was attacked so every one else can go to hell. “I’m taking my football and going home.”
If you want a solution then stop voting in FF FG LAB – it’s quite simple really – if you want change you have to stop voting for the past
Bad prescient to set. If a garda is attacked, pull garda resources from the area rather that saturating the area with gardai and crushing criminal gangs. Our police force, legislators and judiciary are not strong enough for the criminals in and coming into this country.
What a pile if rubbish. Garda get attacked, stop doing their job, crime increases.
The country is a joke at this stage! If the authorities know so much about these criminals, they should be hounded till brought to justice! Communities cannot continually be let down by government after government while they’re the ones that suffer the scourge of drugs and criminality on a daily basis! Time for this government to do just that and govern for those that need to be protected by these sc#mb#gs!
Wow….just wow, talk about the tail wagging the dog, scandalous stuff.
what’s the issue in this country with deporting criminals , you wouldn’t rock over to Australia or the US and flout the laws and have them entertain you … out t f.
I’ve no sympathy for them they’re an absolutely useless presence.
Round them up and ship them out. F the EU and their PC brigade. Our children are far too important to put them at risk for fear of annoying some Brussel Sprouts.
Well hopefully when our new commissioner get settled in he will start to get to grips with this problem
Visible police presence is what’s needed, if I recall correctly 30% of new Garda cars are unmarked and unless there flying up a bus lane only people with a criminal inclination tend to spot them straight away leaving vulnerable law abiding citizens with the impression that there is very few guards around. Why do you think some police forces use segways etc, it’s not because they’re super fast it’s because they catch people’s attention. Garda Siochana literally translates to keepers of the peace and what do peace keepers do but simply be there and be visible allowing citizens to feel safe and unmolested as they go about their business. Unmarked cars suggests they want to catch criminals as opposed to preventing crime.Agree or disagree with whatever tactic I prefer the one with less victims
If this was DUB4 there would be no contest – Guards Galore
Amiens Street, Foley street, Talbot street Sean mac Dermot street, Gardiner street, Buckinham street, railway street are all littered with drug users and heroin junkies and rough sleepers. Open dealing of drugs and prescription drugs is rampant I see this on a daily basis. Every ones know to come to these area for drugs. Irish, black, Asian, Indian and even foreigners and tourists looking for a hit prowl around here for drugs. It’s unbelievable and the guards do nothing.. I heard a garda on a bicycle speaking to 2 foreigners who were around looking for drugs, the garda explained to them, ” here’s some advise don’t buy your drugs here go somewhere else because there are 4 of them around there and they will just rob you, buy your drugs somewhere else”
Kill them all
Guards need high powered weapons …..That’s how Bonnie and Clyde were sorted out…..less bullshit is needed from PC Plod and Keystone Cops apologists…..And Drug Dealers need the Death Penalty…..less Solicitors using the revolving door of free legal aid as well is required
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