Trevor Quinn
New Castlebar Garda Superintendent Peter O’Boyle has promised to crack down on cannabis growing and on dangerous, loud ‘boy racer’ activity. Supt O’Boyle has asked the public to be on the watch out for illicit drugs ‘grow houses’. Any suspicious activity in rented or leased properties should be reported, he said, explaining that these premises are the most likely kind to be used as warehouses for organised criminal gangs for drug cultivation.
More than four floors of cannabis with a street value of €400,000 was found in Swinford two weeks ago, and €120,000 of cultivated cannabis was found in the South Mayo village of Hollymount last June.
Supt O’Boyle has promised a hard line on cannabis: “Some people regard it as a soft drug, but it will be treated for what it is, which is an illegal substance. We act on intelligence, so it is important that if people are suspicious or have any information they get in touch with us. We have found that rented and leased addresses are proving very popular with gangs involved in these types of operations.”
Speaking about the growing prevalence of drug cultivation in these grow houses, which Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan described this week as a ‘low-maintenance, high-return activity’, Supt O’Boyle says it is no surprise that criminal gangs are drawn to such a profitable venture. “If there’s money to be made they’re going to go with that idea.”
The days of super-sized exhausts zooming from one end of the town to the other could also be a distant memory if the new superintendent has his way. ‘Boy racer’ vehicles with loud amplifying engines have long been a source of upset and annoyance to many local residents.
Supt O’Boyle says: “I will be working with Inspector Joe Doherty from the divisional traffic unit and we will be putting a strategy in place to deal with the problem. We will be warning people and giving them an opportunity to comply with the law, but if they breach those warnings then they will be prosecuted.”
