New unit makes 60 drug detections

MDMA, heroine, cocaine and cannabis are just some of the drugs seized from 220 searches of people on Leeside in the past month.

The searches were carried out by the new high visibility city centre policing unit which began operating in mid-June and resulted in ten detections of drugs for sale and supply and 50 detections of possession for personal use.

Inspector Gary McPolin said: "We work closely with all of our stakeholders to make Cork city a safer place. Thousands of people come and go through the city each day, but there are a small minority who are caught up in crime.”

Whilst out on high visibility patrols, targeting anti-social behaviour and thefts from local business, the unit has also seized 11 knives and one baton, as well as seven detections for public order and 13 for theft from shop incidents.

Inspector McPolin continued: “Cork is a safe place to live, work and visit. All of our gardaí have an active role in drug enforcement and patrolling our streets, but to have a dedicated, high visibility unit in the city to disrupt street level drug offences, anti-social behaviour and thefts from local business, will hopefully benefit the whole community and make Cork a safer place.”

The new unit, made up of one sergeant and eight gardaí, are mainly a high visibility unit but occasionally carry out plain clothes drugs operations.

The members of the unit are attached to the southside Community Engagement Hub, which operates under the garda operating model. They are deployed at times and locations that have been identified as hot spots for crime by the Garda Analysis Services.