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AT ANY ONE time in Ireland, there are crime gangs plotting their next moves, drug dealers waiting on their supply and homes turned into mixing rooms.
The drug trade, and violent crime related to it, had been continuing as normal up to a few weeks ago.
But the pandemic is having an effect here too. The coronavirus crisis has effectively decimated the drugs trade across Ireland and Europe.
Sources familiar with the illegal drug trade around the country have told TheJournal.ie that cocaine dealers either have no product – or too much of it and are unable to get rid of it.
With gardaí out in force patrolling the nation’s roads, many of gangland’s most notorious figures appear to have made a decision to hunker down and wait out the pandemic – at least for the moment.
There have been three flashpoint areas that have been in the headlines in recent years and the impact of the coronavirus on these feuds have been noticed by frontline officers.
Longford
Gardaí in the region have long been trying to keep a lid on the criminal factions who have been carrying out tit-for-tat attacks on each other in the Longford area over the last two years.
The situation became so perilous that armed gardaí were sent to patrol the streets of Longford last summer.
The feud, which has its roots in a disagreement between two families belonging to the Traveller community, has spiralled out of control in recent years.
Shots have been fired at homes and innocent family members have been threatened. Intimidation and assaults are common among the gang members.
Both sides of this dispute have associates from Eastern Europe who are part of the drug trade. A number of men from Lithuania, Moldova and Poland are understood to be involved in moving significant quantities of drugs around the midlands region.
However, the coronavirus outbreak has stopped this trade in its tracks. Anecdotal evidence from sources familiar with the drugs trade in the area says that every debt possible is being called in by the gangs as their revenue streams dry up.
The demand for drugs has not gone away but it has instead changed.
Local sources have told TheJournal.ie that the Covid-19 lockdown has resulted in a dynamic shift in the trade.
“Cocaine is on its knees now. It’s either not coming in or there is no demand for it as everyone isn’t out on a Saturday night. What is happening and this is just from chatting around the town, is that the demand for cannabis has increased significantly,” one source with knowledge of the drug trade in the town told this publication.
The feuding gangs are still trading insults on social media and on different online platforms. But these are just seen by gardaí as par for the course.
As for what happens when the restrictions are lifted? As one source put it: “We’ll have to wait and see.”
Finglas
This feud has been one of the most dangerous for gardaí to police considering its close ties to the Kinahan/Hutch feud.
It has its roots in 2018 when an up-and-coming drug dealer, known as Mr Flashy, attacked a young associate of the Hutch gang.
Mr Flashy had been an errand boy for the Kinahan cartel. From early in 2018, the drug dealer began to consolidate his turf in the Finglas area, using Kinahan-backed suppliers and hired guns to control the region.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Mr Flashy has seen his business take a huge hit.
Gardaí investigating the warring gangs believe that the 27-year-old gangster may even be in trouble as he is said to owe a six-figure sum to a supplier which he has yet to pay due to the lack of people buying the product.
Flashy himself has been trying to offload some of his supply to other local dealers, it’s believed. However, these dealers are reluctant to buy the supply when demand has reached nearly zero.
He himself was arrested by gardaí following a car chase in Dublin last month. He was later released without charge.
Gardaí attached to serious crime units continue to carry out surveillance and intelligence work against gangs in the area.
It now appears that many dealers are now trying to move their products through the postal system – as to be out on the streets will garner too much attention from the authorities.
The Finglas feud also has links to the ongoing gang dispute in Drogheda.
Drogheda
This feud hit the headlines with the gruesome murder of Keane Mulready-Woods, the 17 -year-old whose dismembered remains were discovered in a holdall bag in Dublin in January of this year.
His death followed nearly two years of violence in the town.
The Drogheda feud began in the summer of 2018 after a failed murder attempt on Owen Maguire. Since then there have been over 100 reported incidents of violence, intimidation, serious assault and criminal damage.
The ramping up of violence in the area has resulted in significant garda resources being allocated to the region.
Just like in Finglas and Longford, the streets of this large town are essentially empty – yet gardaí believe that the reduction of violence in the area is down to logistics rather than any sort of ongoing ceasefire.
The trade in the area had slowed down prior to the coronavirus restrictions after a number of seizures.
Officers, in recent weeks, have had to contact lower-level gang members in the area to inform them of threats to their lives.
It’s after cocaine seizures in the first three months of the year heaped pressure on the gangs to find money to pay off their suppliers or be faced with taking the financial hit themselves.
TheJournal.ie understands that a number of young dealers connected to major players in one of the gangs are being pressured for four-figure cash sums.
Many of these dealers received the drugs on credit and must pay the suppliers back, despite their stock being seized.
Others are effectively being blamed for the seizures and have to pay up as penance for allowing the drug stashes to be confiscated by the authorities.
Supply and demand
One thing that this current crisis has done is stopped the cocaine trade in Ireland, vindicating the theory that with no demand there’s no supply.
However, what we have seen is that dealers will diversify what they’re selling to suit the times. Cannabis is now in high demand, according to gardaí and community officers, and so too are benzodiazepines such as Xanax. These drugs are usually dispensed to treat people who suffer with anxiety disorders and panic attacks.
For now, gardaí continue their surveillance work on these gangs.
Sources say that other crimes, such as burglaries and public order offences, have fallen massively in recent weeks due to the Covid-19 crisis, and gardaí are well aware that plans being made by the criminal gangs for when all of this stops.
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I don’t like cannabis and cocaine in the same sentence.. Ones a disease and one’s a consciousness that heals many things :)
@Ross: which is which?
@Louise B: that’s brilliant
@Louise B: C’mon now Louise. You know well which is which
@Ross: panic buy ahhh
@Ross: both terrible drugs
@Peter Leonard: one helps people with a wide range of illnesses.. The other doesn’t.. Cannabis has never harmed anyone unless they abuse it at a young age or already have serious mental illness. I’ll keep saying it until the cows come home, because it’s true :)
@Peter Leonard: Terrible is new terrific, Peter.
@Louise B: that gave me a giggle.
@Ross: Tires of this trope. It is a drug, it does f
Mess you up if smoke enough…but there’s no way it’s anywhere near as harmful as alcohol.
@Peter Leonard: Funny that. Cannabis has given me my life back. No more tremors or bone pain.
@Ross: keep kidding yourself… regular use of any drug messes with your head. You’re mood changes, it affects relationships and it does have an affect… on everything!
@Ross: good one Ross, its never hurt anyone apart the ones it has hurt. Great logic there.
@Louis Jacob: no its not.
@Ross: actually cocaine had far more medical uses than cannibis and has been legal for medical use for years
@paul kelly: Well done Paul, most illegal drugs have a medicinal form as well. They are treating people with ketamine now and all.
@King B: Ketamine was an anaesthetic agent long before it was a drug of abuse.
@Lydia McLoughlin: think before you say things. any drug?
Does regular use of coffee mess with your head?
Does regular use of alcohol mess with your head.
The answer for any drug is, it depends on many many factors but is not black and white.
We accept the use of lots of drugs, but unfortunately for our society have demonised the wrong one.
anything that gives pleasure can be problematic cannabis included. But banning betting or masturbation or eating cake just because a small number of people develop problems makes no sense just like cannabis prohibition makes no sense. Anyone who really looks at all the facts and has no vested interest will see this.
Legalise and regulate.
@Gareth: no, zero tolerance and incarcerate.
@Rochey77: Yes the ol’ tried and tested.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it
@Rochey77: Yeah Rochey77 because that worked so well everywhere else
@ruairi: too many vested interests.
Especially security – Mexican cartels have switched to heroin , as cannibis has been legalized in the US
@paul kelly: Mexican cartels have been moving heroin for decades you numpty.
I think this article demonstrates how demand leads supply. The huge demand for heroin in the US was not caused by cannabis or mexicans; it is in large part caused by the previous economic crisis combined with over prescription of opoids.. by doctors… pushed by the pharmacutical industry. More than one pharma ceo are before the courts for this. If anything the legalisation of cannabis in USA is reducing heroin drmand.
@Rochey77: Criminalization of drugs doesn’t decrease usage, it just increases crime. People will still consume drugs and gangs will use drugs to fund other criminal activity. The War on drugs is a complete waste of money. Prohibition didn’t work in the US and it doesn’t work with drugs now.
Can the dealer who are falling on hard times not claim the covid 19 social welfare payments?
@John kavanagh: yeh they self employed
@John kavanagh: no, you need to register your business with revenue and pay tax to apply
@Agenda21: bet you’re a hoot at parties!
@Ian Dixon: I won’t be chatting to you at parties if I am seeking some original humour.
@Agenda21: Not sure that’s actually true. I think you only have to show you’re self-employed but I don’t think you have to be registered with revenue (many new self-employee might not have registered yet). Are you absolutely sure?
A lot of people can’t do socialising without cocaine . If ever there was proof needed that recreational drug use is the mainstay of gangland anarchy , this social lock down is it.
@Seymour business: I can’t do isolation never mind socializing
My heart bleeds for them.
@Logan Shepherd: Nice to hear that you’re a decent chap.
Cocaine is a pub drug. As much as the vintners rally against illegals drugs,coke is a pub/club drug. Keeps lads drinking (sometimes literally for days), spendings serious cash in their pubs.
Weed doesn’t suit the vintners, fast food joints ya, but not he pubs.
@De Zach Same: the
@De Zach Same:
weed is as easy got as a wet foot
….I don’t know about coke I’m a herbal brother not a chemical brother
I’m with Alan.
Marijuana is def a good thing right now. Medicinal or not it keeps people relaxed in times of stress. Like trump said …” just stay at home & relax”
They should legalise and strictly regulate cannabis. If the US, Canada and dozens of other countries are doing it problem free then its only matter of time before Ireland follows suit. And now of all times we could do with the millions of euros it would generate in tax as well as creating hundreds of new jobs.
@J Kiely: A company that Denis O’Brien owns will be awarded a license to sell it.
Cause there’s checkpoints and not enough traffic to blend in. Or so I heard
Lol dealers are informing to the papers now
A pint of Guinness in mulligans. Thanks very much.
@Darragh Brennan: and if that Guinness was suddenly made illegal, would you defend it?
Without any jokes. The hard heroin addicts in society who are totally addicted. How are they getting their supplies?
They can’t shoplift or rob unfortunate innocent people Without Methadone how will they survive in their squalid lives? They are not social users but real unfortunate addicts. They must be so strung out and need social services right now
@Ciaran Daly: they will still be getting their methadone from clinics in Pharmacies I imagine.
Always a silver lining…
What a load of bollix
We live on an island, we cannot grow this stuff – why can we not X-ray everything, every truck car person suitcase bag box – everything which enters the country and stop drugs coming onto our little rock?
That will take funds away from all drug dealers and we will live in a more peaceful society
Rathmines littered with take aways still operating at full tilt. OMG.
This is Ireland where we do a half arsed shut down. We leave pizza joints open and chinese take aways and japanese take aways and indians. OMG.
@Imagine !: there’d be starvation if not. Unfortunately many of the younger generation do not cook, whether it be due to lack of time, lack of education in it, lack of interest, lack of diet awareness, whatever. Not to mention those without proper homes housed in hotels and so called hubs, where cooking facilities are limited or non existent.
@Rochey77: Well then. The army needs to step in and supply the food in a safe manner. It cannot continue.
@Rochey77: Maybe that is why they are setting up community hubs to supple safe food? When setup takeaways will close.
@Imagine !: so shut down supermarkets as well then
@Imagine !: You say that you are an educator but yet you spew unintelligible junk.
@Rochey77: they’d learn quick enough of there were none of these places open!! Besides dunnes etc sell pre made meals if they were that lazy.
@Rochey77: why just the younger generation? Where do you draw the line there @rochey77? Are you telling me people 30-70 don’t eat shite food too? Get a grip man will ya
Keep us on lockdown to F – - K
This virus is highly contageous and the truth has not been told about that. In our world right now if someone coughs everyone would hold their breath and run away. Yet it still spreads. They say take away food is safe. This is absolute crap. This virus can, is and will spread on take aways. I plead with the powers that be “please please please do what is proper and close take aways now”.
@Imagine !: Our shut down is half arsed while take aways remain open.
@Imagine !: I am classed as an essential worker, I’ve been in work all week and treated myself to a takeaway this evening as it’s been a long week and I was feeling to tired after cookingat home all week. Your point is mute in regards to takeaways being open, what’s stopping the virus being spread on the loaf of bread you bought in the shop, or any other item that someone with the virus has touched but decided they didnt want to buy and left it on the shelf for the next person to pick up. What difference to you is it if takeaways are open if you or your family are not buying from them and keeping yourselves an acceptable social distance away from the rest of the world then you have nothing to worry about. If you and everyone you associate with are sticking to the government guidelines then there will not be a problem with them remaining open.
It’s the market lads. It’s always always the market. Time to start sealing with existential realities instead of emotive claptrap
@Louis Jacob: *dealing
Demand zero lol wrong….whole article wrong
Just imagine how legalising, regulating, and taxiing drugs would lower drug crime!
Are drug dealers categorised as key workers?
@Pat Coyne: only in hospitals and media stations
We be all smoking butts off the pat so worries not
This argument is a bit like Tom & Gerry.. There will always be the cat an the mouse
Definitely smell the change on walks.
Take away orders are way up. Stupid assumption: heat kills the virus and if someone coughs on a pizza tge heat kills it.
@Imagine !: did the wacky tabaccey tell u that
What a load of crap
and Jesus wept
Pharmaceutical companies played a genius move by creating opiod’s and benzo’s like Xanex and Oxycodone, not only will doctors and chemists sell them but the dealers will too, high fives around the boardroom!!… Think ‘our own’ Pfizer make Xanex in Cork.
are the dealers entitled to the 350 euro
have your say