Watching and waiting game yields results as patient officers pounce

THE usual Friday night calm of Greystones Garda Station has been rudely disturbed. The two cells are occupied, the old fashioned barracks is overrun by busy young men and women in plain clothes, and a box of latex gloves sits innocuously on a table.

It can only mean one thing: the drugs unit is in town. The local gardai look a little harassed as they wrestle with a deluge of paperwork, filling in a fast changing custody record, as well as routine inquiries from the public on passport applications, gun licence renewals and so on.

Much of the work of the drugs unit involves waiting, but when things happen, they happen fast. Since earlier in the day, the unit has had two houses in the area under observation and when suspected customers of a suspected drug dealer began to come and go, the unit sergeant was notified.

He took the call in Dun Laoghaire at around 7.15 p.m. and, within seconds, he and another plainclothes garda were heading for Greystones. No sooner had they arrived than they had picked up their first suspect as the Garda surveillance radioed the description of a man seen leaving the house.

In the local station he is searched. When the search reveals eight "deals" of cannabis - worth up to £200 - he is formally released, to be re arrested outside the station under Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, which covers possession with intent to supply and allows detention for a period of six hours.

As he is taken to a cell, a second suspect is brought in, aged 15. He has been arrested leaving the same house and failed in his attempted to swallow the evidence as he was collared. He has enough cannabis for a single joint.

The unit sergeant is a little embarrassed to find that the youth is a neighbour. But he's not half so embarrassed as the youth, whose experience is about to be shared with his parents.

A minor cannot be searched without the presence of a parent or other responsible adult. Within minutes, the angry mother and father are in the station and they are ushered with their son and the arresting garda into an interview room.

But this time, it's not the police who are doing the interviewing. When the boy emerges 10 minutes later, he looks ready to hand himself over to the mercy of the gardai.

Fortunately for him, as a youth with no previous record, he will almost certainly be "JLO'd" - approved for the supervision of a juvenile liaison officer. With good behaviour over a period - something his parents will probably help ensure - he will escape without a conviction.

The unit sergeant has already put the Kilmainham based dog unit on stand by for a possible search of the house under surveillance.

But when another suspect who has been arrested near the house proves clean, he must be released. And in case he should tip off the suspected dealer, the house search must go ahead. By now, there is enough to justify it.

Extra bodies" arc secured for the purpose and eight officers are detailed to carry it out. But even as the search is under way, another unwitting individual arrives at the door. He too is searched, and is found to be carrying seven tabs of LSD.

The tabs are like tiny pieces of blotting paper - each printed with the words the end" - and would fit all together on a postage stamp.

Their street value is £3 to £5 each - the drug is unpopular compared with ecstasy - but the quantity is again sufficient to land him in the cell at Greystones, again on possession with intent.

It is also sufficient to justify a search of his house, also local, but since the man lives with his family it is decided to restrict the search to his bedroom. It is past midnight but a local commissioner of the peace has to be raised to have the new search warrant sworn.

The search of the first house drags on for almost three hours, with rain lashing down on those combing the back garden. But shortly after 11 p.m. the cavalry, in the form of the dog unit, arrives and a distinctly unprepossessing cross between a labrador and a terrier lends his nose to the investigation.

Within minutes, Fido has cracked the case. He leads the searchers to a spot in the neighbour's back garden and - after a friendly word with the neighbours - a jar with several ounces of cannabis and several hundred pounds in cash is found. The suspect is arrested and, with both cells in Greystones occupied, is taken to Bray Garda Station to be interviewed.

It is nearing 2 a.m. and the end of the first six hour period of detention is getting close. If necessary, a second six hour period can be sought, but this requires the consent of the presiding superintendent. This can be given over the phone, but each request must be justified with a detailed explanation of the circumstances. The superintendent on duty can expect to be woken up by several such calls over a weekend.

On this occasion, however, both prisoners in Greystones agree to make statements within the first six hour period. The search of the second man's«MDBO» «MDNM»bedroom has yielded no more LSD, but the man detained in Bray is refusing to answer questions and waiving his right to have questioning suspended.

So the drugs unit is facing a long night. In the meantime, plans to go dancing" - a euphemism for visiting night clubs arc shelved.