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Soccer fans monitored for cocaine at Croke Park Ireland’s
spiralling cocaine problem has now infiltrated itself into the very heart
of one of the country’s top sporting venues.
Last weekend saw extra gardaí patrol on and outside Croke Park’s
Hill 16 in order to monitor cocaine abuse among a minority of football
fans at the Dublin v Offaly game.
Both uniformed and plain-clothes gardaí mingled with the 14,000-strong
crowd.
And the Garda Dog Unit was also on hand.
Earlier in the week several callers to a national radio show spoke of
how they saw young men openly sprinkle cocaine on the cisterns in the
toilets before snorting the drug.
Angry GAA fans have also bombarded websites with eyewitness accounts of
fans snorting cocaine off the top of urinals and from coins.
The problem of drug abuse was also raised at a recent GAA meeting where
bosses admitted they had received several complaints about fans snorting
cocaine at matches.
Former Dublin manager Tommy Carr called for anyone caught using the Class
A drug to be banned from Croke Park.
A GAA spokesperson said: “There were complaints about this. We deal
with any problems that are raised by supporters. You can’t have
80,000 people in a stadium without problems arising and we do deal with
problems that have arisen.
“First and foremost you’re talking about a criminal offence
and we would obviously co-operate with the gardaí in any way they
see fit.
“As always it is only a small section of people engaging in illegal
drugs and the majority of the crowds at yesterday’s sports fixtures
were only out to enjoy the action on the field.”
Last weekend’s match was policed by gardaí and GAA stewards
and a garda spokesperson said there were no signs of any trouble.
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