DRUGS SWOOP NETS 46 DEALERS

Nights of business as usual came back to haunt 46 drug dealers when
they were hauled before the courts charged with selling heroin to
undercover gardai.

In a swoop on dozens of addresses in Dublin city and suburbs early
yesterday morning, Drug Squad detectives paid return visits to demand
some after sales service from their suppliers.

And in a small but satisfying victory for Operation Clean Street 5, all
46 sellers were arrested, charged, brought before the district courts
and placed well on their way to hefty fines or a spell in Mountjoy.

It was the kind of operation to elicit the comment, `not bad for a
morning's work', but in fact the painstaking pinning down of 46
streetwise street dealers began several months ago when detectives
earmarked known but unproven dealers and began setting them up for a
fall.

Throughout June, they posed as heroin users and other small time
dealers in a manner convincing enough to win the trust of, and do
business with, people who pride themselves on knowing their trade and
their clientele. The dealers had little reason to think twice about
their new customers and continued about their business in the interim.

But all the while, laboratory tests were being carried out on the goods
purchased and the detectives were keeping a tab on the sellers, ready
to track them down again when the proof necessary for prosecution was
ready.

By yesterday morning, they had the green light and pounced. The bleary
eyed dealers may or may not have recognised the officers' faces but it
was only a happy reunion for one side of the operation. Clean Street
was first implemented two years ago after complaints that drug dealers
were selling openly and unobstructed on Dublin's main thoroughfares and
other public places.

Now in its fifth phase, it has broadened its focus from the inner city
to include the sprawling suburbs.

Yesterday's detainees were rounded up in areas served by Ballyfermot,
Blanchardstown, Fitzgibbon Street and Santry Garda stations.

The targets are small time sellers, the type who carries two or three
deals to sell to keep his or her own habit going. Drug values are in
tens of punts rather than in the hundreds of thousands that normally
attract publicity but the value to the gardai in terms of disrupting
the drug trade is far higher.

"They're not the big shots but they are the guys who keep the drugs
industry going day to day. Anything we can do to upset them has ripples
further along the supply chain," said a source.

The Drugs Squad plan to keep the dealers' nerves jangling. They have
targeted around 100 regular dealers and say further arrests are
planned.