Fewer than ten cases of drug-related intimidation were reported to gardaí in County Monaghan in 2024, with another 11 in Cavan, but the people who work with affected families say the real number is far higher and much of it never comes to light.
The figures were given to the Monaghan Local Community Safety Partnership (LCSP) when it met at the Monaghan Peace Campus on Thursday, 15 October, as reported by the Anglo-Celt. The meeting took place two days after a family of four died in an arson attack on their home in Waterford, which gardaí are investigating as a homicide believed to be linked to drug-debt intimidation.
"We know there are more"
Andy Ogle, co-ordinator of the North Eastern Regional Drugs and Alcohol Task Force, told members that the 2024 numbers came from the first year of data gathered by DRIVE, the national inter-agency group on drug-related intimidation and violence. "We know there are more," he said.
Mr Ogle said more families who face threats over a relative's drug debt are coming forward. "Many families will choose to pay the debts if they can," he said, "but more families are reporting intimidation to the gardaí and using the weight of the law to push back." He pointed people towards the Family Addiction Support Network and the Cavan and Monaghan Drug and Alcohol Service, and suggested the DRIVE co-ordinator for the North East, Melissa Agnew, be invited to a future meeting.
Councillors want local figures
The LCSP chair, Cllr Alan Johnston (FG), moved a vote of sympathy with the surviving family in Waterford and called on Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan to give gardaí and other State agencies whatever resources they need. He described intimidation as "a smouldering issue" in the county. "There is probably more going on than we understand but it is hidden beyond view," he said. Speaking to Northern Sound, Cllr Johnston said drug-related intimidation "has no place in society" and that Waterford needed to be a catalyst for change.
Vice-chair Cllr Sinéad Flynn (SF) seconded the motion, saying more was needed than "more gardaí on the streets". Cllr Noel Keelan (SF) asked for a Garda report to a future meeting on how much of this crime is happening in the areas the partnership covers. "We hear anecdotally that these things are happening," he said, adding that parents and grandparents are being targeted over the debts of their children and grandchildren.
Francis McCarron of Monaghan Integrated Development called for an information campaign, saying some people see recreational drug use as harmless. "People might as well be throwing the petrol bombs themselves if they are out buying cocaine on a Saturday night. It's all related," he said.
What gardaí said
Superintendent Pat O'Connell said drug intimidation in Monaghan is not a hugely significant issue in volume, but there is a certain number of cases under investigation. Each Garda division has a Detective Inspector who deals directly with people under threat. For the Louth Cavan Monaghan Division that is Detective Inspector Adrian Durcan, and the Superintendent said he would ask him to brief the partnership at a later meeting.
Where someone is threatened, he said, a threat mitigation plan is put in place and monitored. He accepted that victims can find it hard to co-operate, but recalled a case in Drogheda where a family under serious threat worked with gardaí and the people menacing them ended up with substantial sentences.
Where to get help
Anyone being threatened over a drug debt, their own or a family member's, can contact their local Garda station or the Family Addiction Support Network.
