SUPERMARKET FOR DRUGS PUT OUT OF BUSINESS

A DRUGS supermarket operating out of a local authority house secured by
barbed wire fencing, closed circuit cameras and two Rottweiler dogs was put
out of business when an order was secured for the eviction of the tenants
yesterday.

Head of the drugs squad in Cork, Detective Inspector Tony Quilter, described
190 Rathpeacon Road, Farranree, Cork, as a virtual supermarket for drugs,
including cannabis, ecstasy and LSD.

The house is owned by Cork Corporation and was rented to John and Helen
Heaphy in 1991.

John Heaphy surrendered his interest in the house in September 1996 but
gardai believed, on the basis of regular searches of the property, that he
continued to live there with his wife and seven children.

"The premises is a Corporation house, end of terrace. They (the Heaphys)
have barbed wire around the perimeter of the premises. They have cameras
installed facing the front entrance.

"This closed circuit television monitors anyone coming in from the gate to
the front door.

"At the rear of the premises they have procured two Rottweiller dogs which
are housed there," Det. Insp. Quilter said yesterday.

Sergeant Barry McPoland, of Watercourse Road Garda Station, in the city,
said he had met with residents a number of times and they expressed fears of
the Heaphy family and their cohorts.

Garda William Dawes and Garda Oliver O'Sullivan of Mayfield Drugs Unit were
involved in a number of searches of the house.

"Mrs Heaphy admitted to me she was aware of drug dealing going on in the
house," Garda Dawes said.

Garda O'Sullivan said that on garda patrols in the area almost every time he
turned the corner from Pophams Road to Rathpeacon Road a number of people in
the front garden of the Heaphy's house would run into the house on seeing
the gardai.

Corporation solicitor, Brian Harrington, brought an application to Cork
District Court to take possession of the house.

Judge Murrogh Connellan said after hearing the evidence: "In view of the
nature of the evidence I am giving a warrant to the Corporation for
immediate re-possession of the house".

Mr Harrington said that where such an order was granted because of the
anti-social behaviour of the tenant there was no provision for a stay to be
put on the order.

Defence solicitor, Frank Buttimer, had argued that the Corporation had
failed to make a case against Mrs Heaphy and that her level of illegal
activity was non-existent.

Judge Connellan said: "The tenant or occupiers of a house are responsible
for the goings-on in the house and the use the house is being put to.

"This house is like no other I have ever heard of."