Cllr Ó Murchú commends mid Louth family for taking stand against intimidation by drug dealers

Louth county councillor Ruairí Ó Murchú has commended a family in mid Louth who are taking a stand against intimidation by drug dealers.

Speaking at last night’s public JPC meeting in Dunleer, where he read a pre-prepared statement on behalf of the family, Cllr Ó Murchú said: “This family has been dealing with intimidation, threats and extortion for over a year now. Initially they did give money to this gang thinking that that would get rid of them.

“It didn’t and the gang returned demanding even more money.

“The family have refused to hand over any further monies to these criminals and because of that they have endured a sustained campaign of intimidation which has to a large extent taken over their lives.

“I commend this family’s bravery and I urge others in the same situation to stand firm and report any intimidation to An Garda Síochána.

The Sinn Féin councillor added: "The Gardaí tonight have made it very clear that they are in support of families who find themselves in this situation. They are doing their best but it is clear they do not have enough Gardaí to effectively police the whole of Co Louth

“We need more Garda resources in this county and we also need the government to look at the root causes of the drugs trade and invest substantially more funding in addiction, mental health, general health and anti poverty strategies", Cllr Ó Murchú concluded.

The pre-prepared statement from the family suffering from drug debt intimidation that was read out by Cllr Ó Murchú at last night's JPC meeting is as follows:

_{"Since early 2018 our family has suffered an ongoing campaign of intimidation by drug dealers and their associates.}

_{"This gang believes that a member of our family owes them money. They are targeting us because the person with the alleged debt cannot pay, so they say it is now our debt to pay.}

_{"Despite our family giving this gang almost €4,000 the gang are now demanding that we pay over €8,000.}

_{"We refuse to hand over any more money to these criminals.}

_{"However as a result of the stand that we have taken our family is living in constant fear. These criminals are brazen and they do not care about anything.}

_{"Our home has been petrol bombed, our windows have been broken, we receive threats and demands for money every week.}

_{"This gang says they will attack our house and car.  They have said they will chop our heads off.}

_{"We have received multiple text messages, all of them demanding money or else… they have come up to our front door demanding money.}

_{"We decided that we would go to the Gardaí and we have nothing but praise for how they have handled this.  They have regular patrols at our house and if we contact them they come out as soon as possible.}

_{"We urge others in this situation to come forward.  We know that it is not easy to admit that your child has a problem with drugs but living in fear and denial is no good.}

_{"We urge parents to go with their gut feeling and not believe everything their child says.}   

_{"A child involved with drugs will make you believe what they want. If a parent thinks there is something not right, contact the Gardaí.}

_{"Intervention by the Gardaí early could save that child, don't let the drug dealers take our children from us.}

_{"These gangs are never satisfied.  We gave them money at the start but they came back for more.}

_{"We know that we are not the only ones in this situation but we think that if more people come forward to the Gardaí then the Justice Minister will know the true scale of this problem and more resources will come to Louth.}

_{"We want to thank our friends and neighbours, they have stood with us, sometimes sleeping overnight in our house when we feared for our lives, there are some wonderful people in our community.}

_{"Thank you to everyone attending this meeting tonight.  There is strength in numbers and if we stand united we can show these drug pushers that we will not give in to them."}