Garda says drug party raids are difficult

Garda spokesman Supt Kevin Donohoe has admitted that raids on parties and clubs where cocaine is being used could be problematic. "The way that cocaine, and drugs in general, are taken is a difficult criminal activity to detect," he said on RTÉ's Morning Irelandprogramme.

He said Garda resources were being used to target the middle men upwards and they have had "relatively good successes" in that regard with the amount of drugs which had been sent to the laboratories for analysis doubling in just 18 months.

Supt Donohoe said gardaí could not solve the drugs crisis on their own and individuals must take responsibility for their actions.

"An Garda Síochána are not going to solve the drugs problem in this country. There is a national strategy which we are part of. We have a particular responsibility which we take very seriously, but it is society as a whole that we need to examine where we are going with drugs.

"At the end of the day people are making individual choices and they are very significant," he said.

Supt Donohoe said gardaí were targeting "dozens and dozens" of pubs and clubs around the country, but it would be unreasonable to expect officers to be present in every toilet in the country.

"We have dozens of gardaí in various different operations. We certainly haven't got the resources to police every toilet in every pub and club in the country."

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday called on the Garda to raid more house parties where cocaine is being used. He told the Dáil he had asked the question himself last week why such action was not being taken.

"The gardaí have strong powers. . . and I'd like to see them enforced more strongly to be frank about that," he said.

The Minister of State with responsibility for drug strategy, Pat Carey, said he would support more sting operations involving gardaí raiding places where middle-class people take the drug.

Gardaí are continuing to investigate a number of potential cocaine-related incidents in the last week. A Garda spokesman confirmed that toxicology tests will be carried out on the body of a 24-year-old Bray man who died suddenly earlier this week.

Paul Byrne, the father of a nine-month-old daughter, died on Monday morning. A postmortem is being carried out.

The condition of two men in the midlands who may have been the victims of a cocaine-related seizure has improved. The 17-year-old teenager from Mullingar and a 26-year-old Longford man were in intensive care in the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar after collapsing last weekend. Their conditions are described as "comfortable".