Gardai reaffirm commitment to tackling Donegal's drug problem

Gardai in Donegal remain committed to tackling the county's spiralling drugs issue.

A new specialised drugs unit is under consideration for Donegal, where an overhaul of the force is set to come into focus.

The Donegal Divisional Drugs Unit was decimated, its numbers going from 21 in December, 2021, to just five in September, 2022.

The number of detectives working in the Donegal Garda Division has been bolstered in recent months and a drugs unit is being explored.

A dedicated drugs unit in the Milford District was affected by promotions of late, for example.

Man appears in court charged with assaulting man and woman in Letterkenny

A woman in her 40s and a man in his 20s were injured in the attack at a house in Letterkenny on Monday night

The issue was raised by Councillor Michael McClafferty at a community engagement meeting in Falcarragh.

“We would like to see more physical Gardai on the ground,” Councillor McClafferty said. “We did have a specialised unit in Milford, but no-one has come into the gap since then.”

Superintendent David Kelly

Milford-based Superintendent David Kelly said that a specialised drugs unit is 'under consideration'.

The new Chief Superintendent, Aidan Glackin, is in the process of examining the various specialised units in the Donegal Division and will consider additional units, the meeting heard.

“The issue of drugs, we are 100 per cent focussed on,” Superintendent Kelly said.

The Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, during a visit to Lifford in January, when he met with the Donegal Joint Policing Committee (JPC), acknowledged that special units dealing with drugs, economic crime and the armed response unit had to take members from all areas.

“The buoyant economy is driving the demand for drugs as well, particularly cannabis and cocaine,” Commissioner Harris said.

“We are very conscious of the damage it is doing to local communities and intimidation of families around the drugs trade and drugs debt."

In early 2021, €2.8million worth of cocaine, amounting to 41kgs of the drug, was located near Kilmacrennan by officers from the Milford District Drugs Unit.

While no arrests have been made to date, a Garda spokesperson said that the investigation remains 'ongoing'.

In January 2021, €105,000 of cocaine was found during a search of a car at a checkpoint in Lifford.

In August 2022, eight people were arrested during a planned operation targeting drug crime in Letterkenny and in fresh raids as part of Operation Tara, five people were charged at Letterkenny District Court in December.

Before Christmas, Supernitendent Sean Grant told the JPC: “We are not just looking at street-level dealing. We are now actively trying to target overarching criminal groupings and there is some good work ongoing

“We have overt and covert operations in place and do believe that these will be reflected in pending court appearances.”