A murder, knives and drugs: How Donegal Gardai need proper resources

Recent high-level crime in Donegal have brought the county’s policing challenges into sharp focus,

In the last month, Donegal has seen a murder investigation launched, over €4million worth of drugs found and violent attacks in public in busy shopping areas of Letterkenny.

These incidents come at a time when Garda chiefs are considering merging the Donegal Garda Division with the Sligo and Leitrim Divisions. The plan has come in for mounting criticism and concern from both those within the force and the public.

Donegal has 93km of a border with Northern Ireland, which brings its own challenges given the proximity to large urban areas like Derry, Strabane, Omagh and Enniskillen with the majority of stations close to the border having signs on their windows directing people elsewhere.

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The finding of around 60kg of cocaine, worth in excess of €4 million, at remote beaches on the north Donegal coast has highlighted again the need for strong policing in the county.

“This week highlights the need for an increase in Garda resources here as well as through out Donegal,” says Independent Councillor Michael McClafferty.

“This find is a very serious matter. With this find, a murder couple of weeks ago, so much anti-social behaviour breaking out on occasions, I really think now more than ever Commissioner Drew Harris needs to rethink downgrading Donegal’s Garda Division.”

Councillor Michael McClafferty

Around a month ago, the body of a man was found floating in the water off Sliabh Liag. The cliffs were closed to visitors for the best part of five days as a large-scale investigation took place after reports that a man had been seriously assaulted and was missing.

Alan Vial, a 38-year-old of Drumanoo Head, Killybegs, has since been charged that on the 25th of June,2023 at a place unknown within the State, he did murder one Robert Wilkin (also known as Robin Wilkin). Vial is in custody in Castlerea Prison.

The Garda Water Unit was involved in the search for Mr Wilkin’s body in the waters of south west Donegal and was back in Donegal this week.

An unsuspecting walker at Ballyheirnan Beach in Fanad found a package washed up on Wednesday morning at around 8.30am. Around 30 minutes later, at Tramore Beach in Dunfanaghy, a similar package was located.

The Garda Air Support Unit and the Water Unit were drafted in to assist officers from Milford Garda Station, who are leading the probe. The washed up packages are said to be worth over €4 million and could have been part of a much-larger consignment moored at sea. A boat was impounded by investigating officers at Magheroarty Pier as part of the probe.

Gardai assess one of the packages washed up. (North West Newspix)

“The entire Atlantic is the route by which cocaine comes from South America,” said Michael O’Sullivan, a former Assistant Garda Commissioner who worked as the head of the EU’s anti-drugs smuggling agency, MAOC-N, before retiring.

He said the find represented a 'very costly expense' for drug smugglers and dealers, who have now lost a significant stash.

“Depending on law enforcement and naval activity will determine on the route the vessels would take. On occasion they pass the west coast of Ireland - sometimes, they have landed on the west coast of Ireland - go around Scotland and come the east side of the UK.

“It depends on the operation, the cartel and the load. It depends on law enforcement activity - basically, where is the line of least resistance?”

Cops combed large swathes of the Donegal coastline as they sought to retrieve any similar parcels which may have been washed up or floating in the water.

One of the washed-up packages. (North West Newspix)

Donegal is surrounded by 1,100km of coastline and with over 100 beaches, the county’s geographical make-up adds to the difficulties faced by a Garda Division that is consistently battling a numbers game. There has also been a marked increase in notably violent incidents that have left onlookers terrified, not least an episode at the Courtyard Shopping Centre which involved knives.

At Letterkenny District Court this week, a man appeared via vide link having been charged with the production of two steak knives in the incident. More than ever, rank and file Gardai dealing with such matters - not to mention the public they serve - need basic assistance from the top echelons of the force.

There are currently 448 Garda personnel employed in the Donegal Division, assisted by 64 Garda civilian staff. That 512 total is up from the 436 tally in 2017, which included 404 Gardai.

This is the latest major find by Garda in the Milford District. In March 2021, detectives found 41kg of cocaine in a van at Kilmacrennan. That stash was said to have been worth an estimated €2.8 million.

Since then, the Donegal Divisional Drugs Unit has been decimated, its numbers going from 21 in December, 2021, to just five in September, 2022. Issues with the fleet of vehicles has exacerbated the frustrations of officers working the beat in the county.

The feeling on the ground is that the Donegal Division doesn’t just want to maintain its status quo - it NEEDS bolstered.