Gardaí target city centre crime

GARDAI say they’re making progress in tackling anti-social behaviour and open drug dealing around the O’Connell Street area in the city centre as part of an on-going strategy to eliminate the problem.

Dedicated covert plainclothes gardai and high visibility uniform patrols are combining under the Garda’s Operation Spire and have recovered various amounts of a variety of drugs during searches.

Operation Spire is a follow up to a previous initiative on O’Connell Street and is part of an overall strategy to address drug dealing and anti-social activity.

In the first four days of the operation at the beginning of the month gardai searched over 300 suspects, found drugs on 42 individuals, issued almost 100 behavioural warnings and detected 16 public order offences.

Small quantities of controlled drugs including diamorphine, cannabis, cocaine and diazepam were also seized as well as significant amounts of prescription drugs including Zimovane.