How crime stopped paying for cash-strapped drug gangs

THE IMPACT of the recession on drug gangs is captured perfectly in the latest crime statistics.

Overall 17,670 drugs offences were committed in the 12 months to the end of September, a reduction of 25 per cent on the level seen in 2008 when the drugs trade peaked.

Half of that decline has occurred in the past 12 months; when the number of drugs offences dropped by 13 per cent.

The reasons behind the decline in drug dealing reflect what is going on in the rest of the economy; people have less money than before and so they are spending less on drugs.

Garda sources point out that much of the growth in drug dealing and drug consumption was driven by the growing popularity of cocaine during the Celtic Tiger era.

“Lots of cocaine users who were spending hundreds [of euro] on cocaine every weekend just don’t have the incomes to do that anymore so they’ve stopped taking the drugs,” said one Garda source.

The shrinking user market has meant greatly reduced customer demand for drug gangs.

This has reduced gangs’ incomes, meaning they do not have the money to buy large wholesale quantities of drugs and are also finding it difficult to pay their suppliers.

“Because they have no cash they also can’t get big shipments on credit any more, so both the demand and the supply end of things have dried up for them,” said another source.

Gun crime – most of which is related to the drugs trade – has also reduced.

In 2008, for example, 681 firearms offences were recorded here.

That figure has now fallen by 23 per cent; to 525 cases. This total includes cases of discharging a firearm and of possession of one.

Gardaí believe gun crime has reduced because the intensity of drugs gang rivalries has eased somewhat.

Said one Garda source: “When the drugs trade was roaring along, you had loads of criminals trying to get into it or trying to get bigger and take out their rivals. But the money just isn’t there now and so that kind of feuding is not as widespread as it was.”

Other sources say the jailing of many feuding criminals from the Limerick drugs gangs and Dublin crime syndicates as well as the introduction of anti-gang legislation have all conspired with the recession to cool down the level of gangland activity.