Pubdate: Mon, 02 Feb 2009
Source: Irish Independent (Ireland)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd
Contact:  http://www.independent.ie/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/213

TRAGEDY OF THE CHILD DRUG MULES

CASES involving almost €4m worth of seized illegal drugs have gone 
before the Children's Court in the past year. Some of the defendants 
were as young as 13. In one of the cases, a boy caught carrying crack 
cocaine for a Dublin gang escaped prosecution because of his tender age.

Also in the past year, four children were charged with murder. 
Several were charged with possession of deadly weapons.

Such is 21st-century life on the streets of our major cities. 
Potentially useful young people are spotted by gangsters, who can 
pick and choose because there is no shortage of recruits. The 
children are employed as drugs couriers. If caught, they may go free 
because of their age, or be placed in care for their own safety.

But in Limerick, not one has been placed in custody for his own 
protection in the past 18 months. Such children are left under the 
control of the gangsters, with nothing ahead of them but a life of 
crime. Some may "graduate" to working for major gangs.

Norah Gibbons of the children's charity Barnardos wants early 
intervention to stop recruitment. She recommends community policing; 
initiatives to keep the vulnerable at school; and youth clubs.

She says that education cuts and increased class sizes would cause 
more of them to leave school and fall into the clutches of the gangs. 
The cuts are designed to save public money. But future governments 
will have to spend more, not less, on prison places.
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