School staff outraged at cocaine and shotgun find
Staff at a school in Dun Laoghaire today said they were shocked and outraged at the discovery of a sawn-off shotgun and cocaine worth €200,000 in the grounds.
Gardaí from Dun Laoghaire Drugs Unit found the drugs and weapon in the school grounds after a garda surveillance operation in the south Co Dublin area.
A teenager and two men in their 40s were detained for questioning under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act.
The men in their 40s were released without charge and the teenager remains in custody in Dun Laoghaire garda station.
Fr Teddy Downs, chairman of the board of management at the school, said staff were shocked and disappointed by the drugs find.
“That was a desperate thing to do, to put them in the school grounds, but it has never happened before and it is nothing to do with the children.
“Somebody outside probably panicked and wanted somewhere to stash away their stuff and they just used the school as an amenity, and we’re very upset by it.
“We’re shocked and disappointed that it would happen on the school grounds - this is a school with a very good reputation,” he told RTÉ Radio.
“Something like this has never happened before and we’re shocked and outraged.”
Fr Downs said the school had a very strong anti-drugs policy and assured parents of pupils there that the incident was a one-off and would never happen again.
Dun Laoghaire Sinn Féin representative Michael Nolan condemned the use of a schoolyard for such a purpose, which he described as a new low for drug dealers.
“Drug dealers are well known for their disregard for the safety of the communities in which they ply their evil trade, but the use of a children’s schoolyard represents a new low for these parasites,” he said.
“The removal of these drugs from the streets of Dun Laoghaire is a welcome development given the chronic rise in the use of cocaine across Ireland.
“I’d like to congratulate the gardaí on a job well done. This sort of abuse of children’s facilities must not be tolerated,” he said.
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