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The Journal
a day ago
- The Journal
Drug dealer released just four weeks into 18 month term due to prison overcrowding crisis
IRISH JAILS ARE so overcrowded that prison authorities are left with no other option but to release long sentence prisoners despite convictions for serious offences, The Journal has learned. Multiple security and civil service sources have confirmed that a number of prisoners, including those suspected to be members of Organised Crime Groups, have been released. Prison sources said that prisoners who have received sentences for non-violent offences, like cases associated with large drugs seizures, are being let out ahead of time. The calculus used for the release of the prisoners is that they are not classified as a danger to society. The Department of Justice has claimed they are on 'temporary release' but the reality, according to multiple sources, is that these prisoners will remain free. One of those prisoners is Stephanie Treacy from Limerick – she was sentenced to 18 months in prison for her part in a drug dealing operation in the city's St Mary's Park, which is known locally as The Island Field or Kings Island. She served just four weeks of that two year sentence before being released by prison authorities – both Garda and Prison Service sources have confirmed that it was due to measures to limit overcrowding. Stephanie Treacy and her brother Owen Treacy, who was identified in court by gardaí as being involved in organised crime in the city, were arrested after a lengthy garda operation. Owen Treacy has 140 previous convictions for a variety of offences and is a member of a well known family in the city. He and his sister were caught after a long-term garda covert surveillance operation. Gardaí told a Limerick court in April that the Treacys and some associates accessed the roofs of houses on St Munchin's Street between 18 July and 2 August, 2019. They were placing and removing objects under roof tiles – the gardaí confirmed this was where their drugs were located. On 2 August, 2019, Gardaí executed search warrants on three properties at St Munchin's Street, as well as an address associated with the Treacys at St Ita's Street. There they seized more than €32,000 in cash and cheques, as well as more than 100 drug deals that were ready for distribution. The Treacys were placing the drugs inside the plastic toy holders found in Kinder Eggs before selling them on. Owen Treacy Junior has recently been convicted of a threat to kill a Limerick based garda. He got a three month sentence for that which would run consecutive to his three-and-a-half years for the Kinder Egg drugs scheme with Stephanie. Advertisement Owen Treacy will serve his sentence but his sister is out and free and back in Limerick City, having served a fraction of what the judge in the circuit court deemed appropriate. Stephanie had received a three year headline sentence, with the final 18 months suspended. A view of Limerick city looking up the Shannon towards Kings Island. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Overcrowding The Journal has previously reported that record-high levels of overcrowding inside Ireland's prisons are increasing the risk of violence , seeing incarcerated people sleeping on the floor and creating a difficult working environment for staff . There is now a real risk that the Irish Prison Service will not be able to transport all prisoners for court hearings, as overcrowding is putting pressure on staff to meet their escort abilities. Director General of the Irish Prison Service Caron McCaffrey warned the Department of Justice in a letter last year that the system is at 'tipping point' in respect of its ability to carry out escorts to court and maintain safe staffing standards inside its facilities. Her letter told the Department: 'Current levels of overcrowding are exacerbated by resource constraints due to ever-increasing demands for escorts.' We asked the Irish Prison Service and the Department of Justice for comment on the release of prisoners and the specific case of Stephanie Treacy. The Irish Prison Service said they do not comment on individual cases. The Department of Justice classified the freeing of prisoners as 'temporary release'. 'The Irish Prison Service must accept into custody all people committed to prison by the Courts. As such, the Irish Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time. 'Where the number of people in custody exceeds the maximum capacity in any prison, officials in the Irish Prison Service make every effort to deal with this through a combination of inter-prison transfers and structured Temporary Release. 'The legislative basis for temporary release is set out in the Criminal Justice Act 1960, as amended by the Criminal Justice (Temporary Release of Prisoners) Act 2003. 'Decisions in relation to temporary release are considered on a case by case basis and the safety of the public is paramount when those decisions are made.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Examiner
12-05-2025
- Irish Examiner
Limerick 'at risk of becoming drug capital' as cheap crack cocaine floods city
Owen Treacy waved at his loved ones as he was led away to prison last month. The 28-year-old Limerick man, who had been jailed for storing cocaine, heroin, and cannabis in Kinder chocolate eggshells before selling them on the street, did not seem too bothered as he faced another lengthy stint behind bars. Treacy, with an address at St Ita's Street, St Mary's Park, Limerick — a grandnephew of the murdered Limerick gangland boss Kieran Keane — pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing drugs for sale or supply. The father-of-two admitted selling or supplying others with almost €5,000 worth of drugs from a vacant house near his own home in 2019. The drug deals were stored inside Kinder plastic eggshells and hidden under roof tiles at a derelict property in the St Mary's Park estate. The court heard when drug users would arrive at the vacant house, Treacy would climb on top of its roof via a ladder and fetch the drug deals. His sister, Stephanie Treacy, was previously jailed for two years for the same offences. Sentencing judge Colin Daly said Owen Treacy was responsible for a significant drug-dealing operation in his own community, describing it as 'an egregious occupation'. The court heard he had 139 previous convictions. Tracey's case was just one of a litany before the courts in Limerick. Barrister Liam Carroll said there were dozens of drug cases before the local district court each week. The same volume of more serious cases of sale and supply appear before the circuit court every year. According to Mr Carroll, the people he meets who are charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1977), under Section 15 and Section 15a, are often holding the drugs for somebody else. 'By and large, the beneficiaries of the drug trade in Limerick do not keep possession of drugs for sale and supply themselves. The people who we meet are often holding the drugs for somebody else for some reason. QR codes are being plastered on lamp posts in different parts of the city, including near Mary Immaculate College and on O'Connell Street. 'It may be because they have been compelled to do so by a gang. It may be because they have developed such an addiction themselves that their regular supply depends on them carrying out tasks for a gang in the form of moving drugs or holding drugs.' Women and children are also entrapped by the gangs. 'The problem with drug possession cases is, the people who are found in possession of drugs are extremely vulnerable. I certainly have come across cases where women who are victims of abuse and were compelled to hold drugs, where children were compelled to hold large quantities of drugs. There have been cases where we've seen people who have been in possession of drugs a valuation well into the seven figures and those people had absolutely no trappings of wealth and were living in dire poverty. Mr Carroll said it was 'effectively almost impossible' to prosecute a drug dealer from the higher ranks, if they do not take possession of the drugs themselves. 'An example of a case where you might see someone who has been taken advantage of would be the likes of an 18-year-old who had run up a very small debt, maybe €200, because they had been buying drugs 'on tick', which means on credit. 'The person who they owe the money to applies pressure, and they eventually end up holding a quantity of drugs that could be anywhere from a few thousand euro, to upwards of a million,' he explained. 'This is what they have to do in order to repay their debt. They have to either store or transport large quantities of drugs. 'Often, this unfortunate person then gets caught with the drugs in their possession, and they end up in the Circuit Criminal Court, facing charges under Section 15A. That's an offence that carries up to life in prison. "That's what we call a presumptive minimum sentence, wherein the judge effectively has to contemplate imposing a 10-year sentence, but they can go below the 10-year threshold if there are certain factors that warrant them taking that course of action,' he said. Those who are acting as mules effectively receive big sentences — while others reap the rewards. 'Usually, given the rarity with which the actual beneficiaries of the drug trade are apprehended, the sentence would be reduced to five or six years. That is because these people have no trapping of wealth, and it is obviously the case that they were acting as a mule. "It's hard to see unfortunate people like that receive such big sentences whilst others reap the rewards and suffer no consequences." He said vulnerable people recovering from addiction or just released from prison were being targeted by gangs. 'We do have a situation in the city where people who might have recovered from drug use and drug addiction in custody will find themselves being released back into the community. 'They will return to the only community that they've ever known and they will then find that the drug dealers, seeing that they are a vulnerable and valuable asset, will approach them again with a free supply of drugs. They will drop those drugs through their letterbox, knowing that these people are likely to relapse into addiction, and eventually they will ensure that they do relapse into addiction. Then, they will use them again as part of their network for the purposes of drug dealing. The barrister said while heroin was 'quite prevalent' in Limerick in the past, crack cocaine has become a drug of choice for addicts. According to him, the general trend towards crack cocaine was precipitated because heroin as a drug is something that you can only take a certain quantity of on a given day. 'A heroin addict previously told me that effectively if they had taken €100 worth of heroin in a day, that would be them done for the day. This particular addict had since moved on to using crack cocaine, and on their worst days, had spent about €1,000 a day on their addiction. Obviously it's hard to afford an addiction like that,' he said. You don't have to walk far in the city to witness open drug dealing and use — a scourge that is not unique to Limerick, and now found in the country's other cities, and increasingly its towns. But there are growing concerns Limerick is at risk of 'becoming the drug capital of Ireland' according to local Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan. 'You only have to walk around Limerick, and other cities, to see open drug dealing, drug paraphernalia, people selling drugs. And then you see the people who are unfortunately addicted to drugs. Unfortunately with crack cocaine, you see an explosion of sex work, of people sleeping rough on the streets. I'm no medical expert, but you can clearly see it. 'Some of them are walking around like the walking dead. It's really, really tragic to see that.' According to the recently published Mid West Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Force Strategic Plan 2024-2027, drug dealing and usage is 'accelerating' in the Mid-West. And crack cocaine, a drug of a highly addictive nature, is being sold to vulnerable people. Limerick go-to place for crack cocaine According to Mr Quinlivan, Limerick has become the 'go-to place' to get crack cocaine, with people travelling from other parts of the country to avail of cheap drugs. "Crack cocaine was being specifically targeted for Limerick, I believe that's what happened. I believe there's an organised crime gang who treated it like a business proposal. They targeted most vulnerable people, often those who were already addicted to heroin, but they knew they had a market there. "Limerick became the, absolutely, go-to place to get crack cocaine and people are coming from literally all over the State to get crack cocaine.' He said crack cocaine was cheaper in Limerick than other parts of the country. 'My understanding is it has always been cheaper in Limerick. That's why a number of people who would be addicted to drugs, who may also be on a disability payment, come to Limerick. They would have free travel, so it's no issue for them getting the train or the bus to Limerick and coming to Limerick. It's much, much cheaper than it has been,' Mr Quinlivan said. He said the only way to tackle the problem was with more funding — both for the gardai and for addiction services. Just last month, gardaí were on beat patrol when they searched a man following a foot pursuit — '42 wraps of suspected crack cocaine and heroin were discovered concealed on his person'. Mr Quinlivan said: 'We need to make sure that those dealing on the front line with drug and addition services are properly funded because they aren't. As director of Midwest Region Drug Forum, our funding would've been cut in 2009 during the economic crash and has never really been fully in reinstated, so we are playing catch-up the whole time. 'Then we can concentrate on parts of the city where you can buy openly and unless we start dealing with the causes of the problems, we need proper funding or response into those areas. Then we need to go after the people who are profiting off of it. In some of our communities, these people are flouting their wealth in the faces of communities that they've absolutely destroyed. And he echoed the sentiments of barrister Liam Carroll, on the difficulties of catching and prosecuting those "at the top". 'These dealers are very, very clever people. The people at the top of the food chain, for lack of better words, don't normally get their hands dirty. It's normally the ordinary type people who end up getting caught.' The growing use of crack cocaine is visible on the ground, with a noticeable decline in the use of heroin, according to co-ordinator of the Regional Drug Coordination Unit of the HSE Mid-West, Rory Keane. 'Reflecting the picture throughout the country, we are seeing a decline in the availability of and use of heroin, with our most vulnerable service users, who are often homeless, using crack cocaine,' Mr Keane said. 'Cocaine use is now a significant factor in new client presentations, with service users coming from a broad range of backgrounds.' Mr Keane said cannabis and HHC (hexahydrocannabinol, which is a semisynthetic cannabinoid) use in both vapes and in edibles remained significant among younger people using the services. Under explanatory emojis and code names, dealers are trying to "brand pills, with names such as 'Vladimir Putin' and 'Christian Dior' to 'build a reputation'. Sarah Beasley, local councillor and co-chair of the Homelessness and Drug and Addiction Task Force, said the only way to curtail the growing problem was to understand why it was happening. 'Anyone with an ear to the ground knows that years ago it would be €50 for a bag of cocaine or a bag of crack cocaine, now it's down to €20. We are going to have that title [drug capital of Europe] if we don't curtail it and the only way of curtailing the situation is understanding why it's happening.' She said addiction was driving demand, with dealers fueling the crisis by selling crack cocaine at a cheaper rate. 'When you're on crack cocaine, you cannot function in society. Once they start producing that drug and people get hooked, that €20 euros can be as good as €100. They'll get those people coming down for five bags in the day rather than once a week with a hundred euros, so they're actually making far more money on something because it's so cheap. An hour off that hit, they need another hit. That's why they've actually made it a cheaper drug, because it's far more addictive. Ms Beasley said she was concerned to see young people being involved in dealing — as it is harder for them 'to be prosecuted'. 'If you see a suspicious adult, you'd find most probably would turn a blind eye. But when you see a child, you'd be concerned what the child is being mixed into. Children are hopping on scooters, riding into the city and dropping a package. 'They're basically getting the drugs all over Limerick because these children cannot be prosecuted. If an adult is trying to distribute the drugs and they get caught by the gardaí, that's a prison sentence. When it's a child, it could be probation and it could be that the parents are actually brought into the whole scenario.' Addiction driving up crime And the rise in addiction is driving up crime in the city. Businessman Shane Gleeson, who owns a number of Spar shops across Limerick, said his staff have faced violent incidents at the hands of addicts who are stealing to buy drugs. They come in and they generally have shopping bags over their shoulder. They slip down the back of the shop and what they're looking for is something they can easily sell door to door. Once they get enough money together, they go and buy their drugs. 'Generally, one staff member will stand by the front door and then when they go past the points of payment, we'll stop them then and it often turns violent. They often try and push, and shove past you. 'Most of the stealing is carried out by women. It's less obvious that they are drug takers, whereas the guys are very obvious, so they tend to get caught too easily.' 'Most of the stealing is carried out by women. It's less obvious that they are drug takers, whereas the guys are very obvious, so they tend to get caught too easily. We have very, very good CCTV now, and we have very good cameras covering the areas that are high risk, so we are catching them quite a lot. 'Limerick is so small, I tend to know them all anyway. Generally, it's a boyfriend / girlfriend situation, they're both drug users and they're both trying to gain money to buy drugs.' He agrees heroin has fallen to a 'very, very low price' in the city. 'I believe now it's going for a ridiculous €5 a head, that's crazy cheap. But also crack cocaine is very, very popular now in Limerick. It had gone from €50 to €20, then it went to €10. I know it's freely available in Limerick for €5,' he said. And it's not just crack cocaine and heroin — drugs menus are now being dropped through university student letter boxes to highlight what's on offer. Drugs menus are also shared on WhatsApp groups, with prices ranging from €20 to €850, depending on the type of drugs or quantity. Under explanatory emojis and code names, dealers are trying to "brand pills, with names such as 'Vladimir Putin' and 'Christian Dior' to "build a reputation", one source told the Irish Examiner. " If you look those are types of yokes, so ecstasy pills always have these like shapes. Back in the day, there was like Facebooks and stuff because they can basically compress them into shapes and put colouring on them and they become a kind of a brand for like a tiny little bit," the source said. "They have different kind of slightly different qualities. So, if you build up a decent rep, it can kind of go around and people go, 'Yeah, those are good'. So there's literally an ecstasy pill that looks like Vladimir Putin's head, then it has the kind of brand name." In addition to these 'menus', QR codes are being plastered on lamp posts in different parts of the city, including near Mary Immaculate College and on O'Connell Street. You scan the code, which brings 'customers' to a website which promises a range of drugs delivered direct to their door. According to Social Democrats councillor Elisa O'Donovan, leaflets with these codes have been left in the mailboxes of some houses near Mary I. She said the proliferation of these QR codes is just another indication of how visible and widely available drugs are now in communities. 'We can no longer continue with the old polices around drugs, which are not working. The Social Democrats believe that in line with international best-practice, a policy of decriminalisation should be pursued in respect of the possession of drugs for personal consumption. 'This would stop dangerous practices such as drugs being made available on lampposts through QR codes. We need much safer practices when it comes to drug use in our communities which we know continue every day,' she said. Drugs menus are also shared on WhatsApp groups, with prices ranging from €20 to €850, depending on the type of drugs or quantity. Chair of creative writing at the University of Limerick and bestselling author Joseph O'Connor said the prevalence of drugs in the city was frightening. ' I have worked at UL for 11 years and over the years, the students have spoken to me, mentioning the drug situation in Limerick, and how prevalent drugs are. Some students have told me that it is easier to get cocaine in Limerick than it is to get a pint. 'If you are 18 or so, and if you're a first year, you go into a bar in Limerick, you'll be asked for ID. But that is not the case with cocaine.' Professor O'Connor said he had been told of situations where students received drug 'menus' through their letterboxes. 'Not unlike a delivery service, flyers have been put through the letter boxes of premises where students are staying with a kind of menu of what's available, to give us a call and we'll have it round to you in 30 minutes. 'If you're a parent of university students as I am, that's a very frightening situation. Haven't heard it recently as much as I used to hear it, but certainly over the 11 years, that is something that I've heard.' A spokesperson for UL said: "The University of Limerick, through its Healthy UL Campus initiative, has sought to develop a comprehensive health promotion programme for students through a three-pronged approach: prevention, promotion and response. 'UL is committed to safeguarding students' health, safety and welfare through support for and delivery of activities intended to reduce harm-related substance use, promote substance use health literacy, and respond to students' substance use support needs, with the aim to promote well-informed lifestyle choices. Read More Reforming court access to counselling notes must be carefully done
