*Cathal Crowe. Photograph: Eamon Ward
Small-time drug dealers have become “kingpins in Europe” on account of “soft” criminal law in Ireland, a Clare TD has claimed.
Villages across Co Clare have residents that “are not going to work but are living way beyond their means,” Deputy Cathal Crowe (FF) remarked while posing the question to the Garda Commissioner that criminal law in the country was “soft”.
“The reality is some of the small time drug dealers who stood on alleyways and stairways in the 1980s are now kingpins in Europe. There is something wrong that someone cannot be reined in from a street corner and they are now barons in Europe,” the Meelick native remarked.
Deputy Crowe noted that the Criminal Assets Bureau recently marked its twenty fifth anniversary, “there has been talk of baby CAB and mini CAB but the reality is drug dealing isn’t just in Ballymun flats, it is in every village in Clare”.
Speaking at a meeting of the Joint Policing Committee, Commissioner Drew Harris stressed that the Gardaí were committed to putting away the “foot soldiers and lieutenants” associated with drug dealing. He commented that efforts continue internationally with Interpol and Europol to tackle international crime groups with Irish origin.
Commissioner Harris said the legislation in Ireland was among the “strongest and rigourest” in Europe, “we have the strongest regime in securing criminal assets”. He added, “we want to make Ireland a hard target for organised crime, we can only do with that with our international partners”.
