Tag Archives: drugs

  A 53-YEAR-OLD West Clare man has told a judge that if he can be accused of committing a crime, it is ‘bananas, unjust and absolutely absurd’. John O’Regan of the Kilkee Bay Apartments, Kilkee made his comment before Judge Patrick Durcan convicted him of cultivating cannabis without a licence and unlawful possession of cannabis at his home on April 7, 2016. At Kilrush District Court, Judge Durcan fined the defendant €250 for the cultivation and took the unlawful possession offence into account. Mr O’Regan told Judge Durcan that because he is obliged to oppose unjust drug laws, he will not be paying the fine. He said, “Judge, you are as fair minded as they come but I am very sorry and I cannot pay the fine.” In a search of Mr O’Regan’s apartment in April 2016, gardaí found 13 mature cannabis plants. The cannabis was for his own use and the defendant told that the court that the relevant law “is unjust and all citizens are morally obliged to disobey it”. …

Gardaí from the Clare Divisional Drug Unit, based in Ennis, stopped and searched a car in Bunratty last night (Wednesday). The car was stopped shortly after 7pm and during the course of the search gardaí discovered cannabis herb with an approximate street value of €5,000 (subject to analysis). The driver of the car, a man (39 years) was arrested and is currently being detained at Ennis Garda station under the provisions of section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 as amended.

The Clare Divisional Drugs unit have arrested two people after they seized cocaine with an estimated value of €70,000 in Birdhill County Tipperary. Two people have been arrested following the operation in County Tipperary  and follow up searches were also carried out at a house in Newmarket on Fergus where drug paraphernalia were discovered. As part of ongoing investigations targeting the sale and supply of controlled drugs in the mid-west region, a car was stopped and searched by gardaí from the Clare Divisional Drugs Unit in Birdhill, County Tipperary on Thursday, November 30. During the search gardaí discovered cocaine with an estimated street value of €70,000 pending analysis. Further searches were carried out at a house in Newmarket-on-Fergus where drug paraphernalia including a weighing scales and packaging were discovered. A man in his 30s and woman in her 20s have been arrested and are currently detained at Shannon Garda station under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act, …

Gardaí have dented the operations of a major supplier of class A drugs in West Clare, after cocaine and heroin, with a combined value of €26,320, was seized during a day-long search operation in Kilrush this week. The drugs were seized from a premises in the Chapel Street area on Tuesday, as part of a joint operation between the county’s Divisional Drug Squad and Kilrush gardaí. Searches took place across the town of Kilrush and involved up to 12 gardaí. One man was arrested following the detection on Tuesday and was detained under drug trafficking legislation. He was released without charge that night and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. Gardaí also confirmed that they are looking for a second man in connection with this seizure. Chief Superintendent John Kerin said the drugs haul is among the highest in the county so far this year and warned that class A drugs have taken a foothold in …

Revenue officers at Shannon Airport seized 1.1kg of herbal cannabis with an estimated value of €22,000 on Thursday when, as a result of routine profiling, they stopped and searched a passenger who had arrived on a flight from Tenerife. In announcing the siezure today (Friday), Revenue said the drugs were discovered in the checked in baggage of the passenger, a 31-year-old Lithuanian man. He was arrested by gardaí and detained at Ennis Garda Station. Separately, yesterday, Revenue officers carried out a search under warrant of a house in Cahir, County Tipperary, and seized over 2,500 cigarettes, branded ‘Richman’, ‘John Bull’ and ‘M1’. The cigarettes have a retail value of almost €1,500, representing a potential loss to the Exchequer of around €1,300. These operations are part of Revenue’s on going operations targeting the illegal importation, supply and sale of drugs, tobacco products and alcohol in the shadow economy. If businesses or members of the public have any information regarding the smuggling or …

The Misuse of Drugs (Supervised Injecting Facilities) Bill 2017, which was approved by Cabinet this morning, will allow the Minister for Health to issue a licence, with conditions, to operate a supervised injecting facility. This is a controlled environment where drug users may self-administer, by injection, drugs they have brought with them. Such facilities will provide access to clean, sterile injecting equipment and have trained staff on hand to provide emergency care in the event of an overdose, as well as advice on treatment and rehabilitation. They will also help alleviate the problems associated with injecting on the street, including drug-related litter. The Bill does not establish a location for a supervised injecting facility, but a pilot facility is planned for Dublin city centre. The HSE have established a working group to gather data, consider possible options and to undertake consultation before any decision is made. Minister for Health Simon Harris and Minister of State for Communities and the National …

A CIRCUIT Court judge has said it is “high time we wake up to the seriousness of drugs” and hit out at the lack of services being provided to deal with this “scourge” in society. Judge Gerald Keys highlighted the dire need for drug rehabilitation clinics to be established, warning that in the absence of these services the problem will only get worse. Speaking in the case of a Clare drug dealer caught with more than €15,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis, Judge Keys said, “It’s high time we wake up to the seriousness of drugs, it’s at a level that is destroying our society”. “No new clinics have been resourced to deal with drug addiction and without it, the number of drug cases will increase”. In his judgement in the case on Tuesday, Judge Keys said he was “blue in the face” from highlighting this matter. He reiterated what he is now known for saying at each of these …

THE former Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, has criticised Travellers who are allegedly engaging in “intimidation” to recoup money that has been given to members of their own community as part of unregulated money-lending. Bishop Emeritus Walsh, who served as Bishop of Killaloe from 1994 to 2010, has spoken out about serious problems being caused by a small number of Travellers who are engaged in feuding, the illegal distribution of drugs and money-lending. In an interview with The Clare Champion following the publication of his new memoir No Crusader, Bishop Walsh believes feuding among Travellers, often linked to the illegal sale and distribution of drugs in the county, is still a major problem. “Some Travellers have told me most of this feuding is linked with the distribution of drugs. There are other aspects as well, including a feud between two families over some slight or hurt and row in relation to a marriage. “A large percentage of the feuding is …