‘Lots
of Young Children Are Out There and They Are Expendable’
Recreational
drug users should be left in “no doubt” that they are supporting gangs that
prey on children and murder people, leading experts have said.
Responding
to the murder and dismemberment of 17-year-old Keane Mulready-Woods, they also
highlighted the need for intensive intervention with teenagers engaged in the
drugs trade, saying there is a “dearth” of such projects.
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| A BLOCK OF HEROIN SCREEN GRAB IMAGE. |
The
developments come as Gardaí appealed for information on the movements of a blue
Volvo S40, registration 161 D 48646, which was stolen in Sandymount, Co Dublin,
on December 15.
It
was recovered partially burnt out on January 15, bearing false registration
plates 141 MO 1925. Gardaí want to know where the registration plates were
made.
A
Garda spokesman added that the Volvo had four matching alloy wheels when
stolen, one wheel has been changed, and Gardaí want to speak to anybody who may
have information about that.
Gardaí
are also appealing for information about the clothes Mr Mulready-Woods was
wearing when last seen alive.
The
clothing — a navy Hugo Boss tracksuit, black Hugo Boss runners (brown sole, black
laces), orange/red Canada Goose jacket, and a Gucci baseball cap — has still
not been recovered.
Meanwhile,
experts will today continue a fourth day of forensic examination at a house and
associated sheds in a Drogheda estate.
Additional reporting by Noel Baker and Sean O’Riordan
Officers
suspect the location — linked to a senior figure in one of the town’s feuding
gangs — is where Keane was murdered and dismembered.
Gardaí
suspect a notorious hitman from Coolock, north Dublin, who is associated with
this gang, was involved in the murder.
Adding
further trauma to Keane’s family, graphic videos and photographs have been
circulating on social media purporting to capture the murder and its aftermath
along with warnings. Gardaí
have appealed to people not to circulate the images, and said the videos were
not of the teenager’s murder.
Eddie
D’Arcy, a youth worker for almost 40 years in Dublin, yesterday said: “We need
to highlight to all those who purchase drugs — whether it is weed or cocaine —
that you are purchasing from the same people who are carrying out hits and
murders.”
Describing
the murder as “absolutely shocking”, he added: “You might think the guy you are
getting your cocaine off at the weekend might seem OK, but the supply line goes
back to a core drug gang.”
Seán
Redmond of the University of Limerick school of law, who leads the
ground-breaking Greentown research project into children and criminal networks,
said: “People who buy cocaine need to feel uncomfortable about what they are
doing.
People should be in no doubt
that in order to get the wrap of cocaine you are supporting an industry that
exploits children. We need to make people very conscious of that.
He
said people give out about “scumbags” acting in a certain way, then snort lines
of cocaine at the weekend.
“There
has been talk of making people aware, but not a concerted campaign,” he said,
adding that people should realise the drug gang leaders supplying their cocaine
engage in “predatory behaviour” by grooming children into their criminal
networks.
Mr
D’Arcy said what is needed is “identifying young people in communities caught
up in the drugs trade and intensifying resources for those people”.
He
said while there are projects aimed at children at risk of getting involved,
there is a “dearth” of programmes for those already engaged in serious
offending in adult gangs.
However,
he said that to get them to give up the lifestyle — as seen with Mr
Mulready-Woods’s high-end clothing — the State needs to “offer them something
in its place”, including jobs.
Meanwhile,
Judge James McNulty, sitting at Bandon District Court yesterday, said: “It is
increasingly difficult to accept that the use or possession of cocaine falls
within the terms of the trivial nature of the offence.”
Judge
McNulty referred to a recent case where “a parade of graduates and aspiring
professionals” appeared before him for cocaine possession relating to their
attendance at the Kinsale Sevens rugby event, and that he was “astounded” by
the details of the offending, which he said had taken place in broad daylight.
He
said that this was done “openly, shamelessly, and in public” by those “who have
placed their career and travel prospects at risk”.
The
appeal of expensive clothes and lots of money are drawing youngsters into the
vicious world of the drugs trade with deadly consequences, writes Liz Dunphy.
Smiling
behind large sunglasses and designer labels or sleeping with rosy cheeks next
to his sister as a young child, the grisly fate of murdered teen Keane
Mulready-Woods is hard to process when you look at his happy pictures on social
media.
However,
alongside photos of scrambler bikes, young friends and cars, are TuPac quotes
about isolation and Biggie Smalls rap lyrics about finding a way out of poverty
by selling drugs.
On
an Instagram account believed to belong to the deceased, one quote reads:
“Don’t fear the enemy that attacks you, but the fake friend that hugs you.”
Keane
had been lured into criminality before his death.
He
smashed windows and petrol bombed a family home, being recently convicted of
intimidating a mother of a teenager who owed drug debt to one of the feuding
gangs.
It
is reported that he may have been ‘running’ with two warring drug gang factions
in Drogheda and he had reportedly been threatened with death and being
dismembered in the weeks before he was killed.
He
was last seen alive on Sunday wearing a Gucci baseball cap, Canada Goose jacket
(many of which sell for more than €1,000 each), a Hugo Boss tracksuit and
runners — the expensive uniform of gang affiliation.
READ MORE
His
dismembered body parts were later found by youths in a bag in Coolock, Dublin,
and his head was left in a burning car.
Those
same designer clothes that he died in and the lifestyle they conjure up can be
a lure for young people to join gangs.
And
as each new child is enticed into a gang, their accumulation of outward signs
of wealth and status attract more young people from their communities into that
extremely dangerous world, which, for vulnerable youths can appear to bring
them into a close community, or a family.
Keane’s
killing is believed to be the third murder in a Drogheda drugs turf war.
Johnny
Connolly, whose research Building Community Resilience research was published
last December, warned that young people are viewed as “plentiful and
expendable” by drug gangs.
“Vulnerable
young people can be groomed into a criminal network. They can be made carry
drugs or run guns.
Children as young as 10 are used as runners under the pretence
that they can’t be effected by the criminal justice system under the age of 12.
“Once
a young person is involved, they can get tangled up in a debt relationship.
"Young
people are used to intimidate others, to cause damage to a property or house,
low-level intimidation that can escalate,” he said.
Mr
Connolly said children can also be drawn into gangs when they admire people
within the criminal network, who can give them status, or money.
And
the supply of young people to gangs is plentiful.
“Lots
of young people are there, they’re available and they’re expendable,” he said.
Commenting
on Keane’s death, he said: “It’s terribly depraved. I can’t imagine what his
family is going through.
“A
crime like this can have a silencing effect on a community, where people will
not want to engage with police or the criminal justice system.”
However,
he does not believe that the vicious killing is a sign of a new phase of
narco-terrorism in Ireland.
“The
gruesome nature of dismembering a child and what seems like the deliberate
dumping of his body where it will be found is the type of thing you see in Mexico.
"It’s
a new low but it can be responded to.
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| Keane Mulready-Woods Murdered and Savagely Dismembered By Drugs Gang. Screen Grab Photo. |
“We
have to support communities which are already doing things to protect these
young people with very limited resources.
"We
have to support young people and provide them with legitimate opportunities,”
he said.
Justice
Minister Charlie Flanagan echoed his calls, telling RTÉ and Newstalk that a
multiagency approach is needed to combat crime.
He
said there had been more than a 50% increase in gardaí in Drogheda in response
to criminality in the area, but that a multi-agency response was also needed
“to disrupt the chain at a local level”.
He
said this issue is at the top of the Government’s agenda in terms of protecting
young people from crime.
The
minister also assured the public that “those responsible will be brought to
justice”.
Speaking
at a press conference this week, Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan said:
“This is a brutal and savage attack on a child and is completely unacceptable
in any normal democratic society.
“It
is important to remember that Keane was a child, a young boy, trying to find
his way in life, he has now lost his life and his family have lost their loved
son and brother. It’s an absolutely horrific murder of a child.”
The
deceased’s sister shared broken hearted tributes to Keane on Facebook, writing:
“You are so special in my life that I know no other person will be able to take
your place my brother. There’s no buddy like a brother.”SOURCE: THE IRISH EXAMINER:
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09/10/2010 · Drug addiction, the abuse of drugs in Ireland is indeed terrible. The idea behind this page is to provide targeted information about drugs to communities right across the country while at the same time allowing for comments and article imput by readers. The site will provide HELPFUL LINKS to various agencies, national and local. for…heroin | Communities Against Drugs Forum
Mr Lonergan made the comments as he launched the 2009 annual review by Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI), which works with drug users, homeless people and prisoners. The report said it dealt with more than 9,000 people in 2009, with a 9% hike in drug users availing of its services.
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