Gardaí believe there are now at least 500 heroin users in the city and county, which drove the increase in burglaries committed late last year.
At the Joint City Policing Committee meeting last November, Chief Superintendent Tom Curley estimated there were between 250 and 300 heroin users across Galway.
At this week’s meeting, he said this had now jumped to 500, although not all of them used the drug on a daily basis.
“We have well over 100 taking it daily, who are the real heroin users. With burglaries you catch one, they get a prison sentence, then some come in from outside the city. An awful lot of burglaries in the last quarter last year were committed by heroin addicts,” he told the committee made up of TDs, city councillors and community representatives.
Under Operation Thor which is targeting organised burglars across rural Ireland, the Gardaí in Galway had been approved for overtime.
“So I would have more people out, so that’s more prevention. If those people see more people out they won’t come out and commit the offences,” he stated.
Across the city and county for the first three months of the year, there were 37 incidents of drug dealing detected, which was up by nine per cent. Gardaí were processing 58 incidents of drugs possession, which was up by five per cent.
There had been a number of big drugs seizures in the first quarter of the year – €102,000 worth of ecstasy, €71,500 of cannabis and €11,300 worth of heroin.
The division was hoping for an increase in Garda recruits this year with 650 newly trained officers due to graduate from Templemore.
“I’ve made applications for extra resources for the Galway division. The next allocation is due in June. They’re going to be allocated in the coming weeks. I’d be hoping we’d get replacements. We had a very successful round of promotions – eleven people were promoted to sergeant – which has the knock-on effect that we’re down by eleven Guards.”
Burglaries in the city were down by 36 per cent to 49 for the first three months, while overall crime had dropped by 35% to 1,245 recorded incidents. The figures for the county will be published at the next Joint County Policing Committee.
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