ATHLONE GETS DRUG SQUAD

A full-time Garda drug squad has been set up in the Westmeath/Longford Garda
division, based in Athlone. The new squad is part of the response to a
report on the priorities the public wants placed on crime.

Last week, ecstasy and other drugs with a street value of pounds 4,000 were
uncovered in Athlone, and in a follow-up operation in two licensed premises
more drugs were seized.

While the authorities would not give any operational details of the squad,
it is understood that eight officers will work full time on drug-related
crime in the area.

They will be drawn from Athlone, Mullingar, Longford and Granard stations
and will work closely with the Shannon river patrol group which was launched
earlier in the month.

A Garda spokesman said the fact that a dedicated unit had been set up did
not mean that the problem of drug addiction in the area was higher than
anywhere else.

"It is a response to the demand for drug units by the public to the survey
on policing which showed that the public wanted them to be put in place," he
said.

He said that until now the fight against drugs was carried out by members in
the area but now they would be working on the problem full time.

A conference in Athlone last week was told by an official from the Midland
Health Board that there were 18 people in the Athlone area who had been
using heroin and were now in a methadone programme, while a further eight
were seeking access to such a programme.

It was also learned during the week that the drug-taking problem has spread
to the Travelling community and in recent times there have been a number of
convictions relating to such so called "soft drugs" as cannabis.

There has been a broad welcome from community and other groups to the
establishment of the full-time unit and it is understood that the other two
midland counties, Laois and Offaly, will soon have a similar unit.