The fight against the abuse of illegal drugs has been intensifying in the midlands in recent weeks, targeting both pushers and users.
The Garda has started to take action against a sizeable number of people from outside the midlands who have been using the area as a location either to sell or use illegal substances.
In the past month, over 30 pubs in the midlands have been targeted by the force and there have been seizures of ecstasy and cannabis.
The most recent raids took place in the last fortnight in Tullamore. Gardai had mounted a surveillance operation on a number of people from Dublin and Galway who had been coming to the town since Christmas for weekends.
A team under Insp John Moloney raided a number of pubs and flats in the town and detained 12 people. Illegal drugs with an estimated street value of £3,000 were seized. Files have been prepared for the DPP by the Garda and a number of people are expected to appear in court here in the coming weeks.
A fortnight earlier, a similar operation was mounted in Athlone by the newly formed Longford/Westmeath drug squad, and ecstasy and cannabis were found. A number of people, some from Athlone but the majority from Dublin, are expected to appear in court on charges relating to possession and supply of drugs.
Garda sources said this week they were aware that a number of dealers and users from outside the midlands had "thought it was safe" to use the area for weekends.
"We are sending them a message that the good times, if they ever existed, are over and there is a very low tolerance indeed to illegal drugs in this part of the world," a Garda source said. "They were under the mistaken impression that we know nothing about drugs down here but they got it wrong.
"First we get rid of the pushers, then the visitor users and we will then target the local users before they can cause any more trouble. We still have small problems compared to places like Dublin, Limerick and Cork and we intend to keep those problems small," he said.