CHURCH PROTEST HAMPERS THE WAR AGAINST DRUGS

THE £2m cost of policing the Harryville church protest is hampering the war
against drugs, it emerged today.

RUC resources which could help smash the Ballymena's large narcotics trade
which includes heroin, crack cocaine and other drugs are tied down
policing the weekly Saturday night demonstration.

A significant portion of the £2m spent tackling the loyalist protest has
come from the local policing budget, the area's most senior RUC officer
revealed.

Ballymena sub divisional commander Robert McCallum said: "While not all of
the £2m expenditure on Harryville comes out of the local policing budget,
many hundreds of thousands of pounds do, which results in a reduced
policing service.

"I am continually being asked to provide more police for the beat, to open
additional police posts and, perhaps most vociferously, to devote more
resources to our fight against illegal drugs.

"In response, I have to state that such initiatives will have to pend the
termination of the Harryville protest." Supt McCallum conceded heroin and
crack cocaine were beginning to take "a worrying hold" in the Ballymena area.

The £2m bill for policing Harryville includes criminal injury claims and
other costs.

The demonstration linked to protests against an Orange parade through
Dunloy began in September last year, but has been scaled down when it
resumed after the summer.

To date 44 people have been charged with offences arising out of the
protests while 50 policemen have been injured.

The Church of Our Lady has been attacked by loyalists, as have local
Catholic homes.

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