Gardaí are planning further undercover anti-heroin operations in Cork City following Operation Emerson which led to the recent arrest of 23 street dealers.
Chief Supt Michael Finn told a meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee (JPC) that six months of hard work had gone into Operation Emerson, which saw undercover gardaí travelling down from Dublin and pretending to be heroin addicts in order to catch dealers.
The senior garda said it took some time for the undercover gardaí to build up the trust of dealers and this resulted in the officers eventually being able to make 52 purchases of the Class A drug from them.
He said local drugs squad officers could never have been used in such an operation because the dealers would have known them.
Source: Sean O’Riordan, Irish Examiner, 16/16/15