Tipperary Garda inspector reaches out to families suffering intimidation from drugs criminals 

Tipperary people and families suffering intimidation and threats from criminals over drugs debts are being encouraged to reach out to the Garda inspector in charge of the county’s Drugs Related Intimidation Reporting Programme.

Thurles based Garda Insp. James White gave a presentation on his work helping and advising drug users and families under pressure from drugs criminals at Tipperary Joint Policing Committee’s final meeting in Tipperary Town.

The Drugs Related Intimidation Reporting Programme was set up by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and National Family Support Network.

Insp. White said unfortunately such is the level of drugs use in society that this problem transcends every single section of society. Some families he dealt with lived in large council estates while some live in very substantial homes in affluent areas.

It was a growing problem that was not going to go away.

He described a typical situation where family members of a drug user who has accumulated a drug debt come to him when they feel they have nowhere else to go.

The criminals tax drugs debts which make them multiple times what the drug users actually owe. Threats of damage to property, threats of violence and sexual violence are issued if you don’t pay up.

“What I find is that the debts are by and large what they (the criminals) perceive the family can pay from their own means.”
While he understood that families would do their damnedest to pay these debts, Insp. White stressed the Gardaí never advise that they be paid nor condone their payment because the money goes back into funding criminal activity.

“I am aware that in the majority of cases the family find the money to pay. They ask me if they should pay, I hold the line that they shouldn’t pay but I am not a fool. I am not blind.”

He said families get credit union loans out to pay debts, hardly ever giving the real reason for why they need the loan. He pointed out that people with drugs debts also carry out crimes like selling drugs or doing a drugs collection run to pay off the debt. However, he warned against going down this route.

If you are caught by the gardaí, you will get a conviction and the value of the drugs seized is added to the debt they owe the criminals.

Insp. White said if any member of the public or elected representative calls any garda station about drugs related intimidation the garda on the end of the phone should be aware he is the Garda division’s point of contact for this problem.

He advised public representatives who have been approached by a constituent suffering this intimidation to pass on their details and he will make direct contact with them.

He stressed he can’t make the drugs debt go away and recalled how one individual he was asked to contact mistakenly thought the gardaí would give him money to pay off the debt. “I said it didn’t work that way.”

However, he emphasised the importance of a problem shared being a problem halved.

“I can offer families practical advice. I have 30 years experience in crime and drugs investigations.”

He works closely with Tipperary’s Garda Crime Prevention officer and some of the practical help he can give is advice on increasing security around a home such as installing cameras and lighting.

He can also provide them with contact details for a support worker from the Family Support Network that helps families affected by drugs and alcohol misuse. Some of these support workers have lived through the same experience.

The inspector also addressed the making of formal complaints to the gardaí about drugs crime intimidation in his presentation.

Threatening someone over a drugs debt was a criminal offence and he advised where possible that a person receiving such threats make a complaint.

“However, I am a realist and it’s by far the minority who have had the strength to make a criminal complaint.”

If people take the step of making a criminal complaint, he explains to them that the complaint written down on paper isn’t enough to secure a conviction.

“It must be followed up in court with that person prepared to give evidence and be subject to cross examination.

“I will always advise a person making a complaint that it’s up to them whether they wish to make a complaint.

He noted that the gardaí have achieved some successes in securing convictions for such crimes and recalled a case of a family who were visited by a Dublin criminal at their rural home.

He ended up being brought before the circuit court and the family were very grateful to the gardaí for their work on that case.

At the end of his presentation Sinn Féin TD Martin Browne urged people with drugs debts not to carry out drugs collection runs in order to pay off the debt.

“If you do it once you are really into it. There is not getting out of it... You are completely at their beck and call and they don’t give a damn what happens you or your family,” he warned.

Insp. White agreed and reiterated that carrying out drug dealing or doing a drugs run was a criminal action and if you are caught you will incur a conviction no matter how well intentioned your actions were in terms of trying to pay a debt.

Insp. James White can be contacted at Thurles Garda Station at (0504) 25100.