Drug dealers targeting kids like Dickensian villains, judge says

A judge in the Republic of Ireland has rebuked drug dealers who intimidate children into committing crimes for them.

Judge Keenan Johnson commented on a case of two teenage boys prosecuted for multiple cases of criminal damage and intimidation of people in debt to dealers. The boys told the court that they harassed the victims out of fear that it was “them or me”, as they had also fallen into debt.

According to the Central Statistics Office, drug crime increased by nine per cent in the twelve months to June 2026, with 17,330 crimes recorded. Rates of detected drug dealing has doubled in the past ten years.

Preying on children

Judge Johnson said the case reminded him of Fagin from the Charles Dickens novel ‘Oliver Twist’.

He explained that the drug lords “prey on children like the accused plying them with drugs, building debts, to manipulate them to act as their foot soldiers in completion of their nefarious activities”.

The judge called such people “the lowest of low” and said “all state resources should be used to catch and lock them up”.

The teenager who was the main offender was given a suspended sentence of six years and was ordered to pay €14,500 in compensation to his victims. The second teenager received a three-year suspended sentence.

‘Lasting damage’

Ireland’s Joint Committee on Drugs Use has claimed that all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, should be decriminalised for personal use.

But Deputy Ken O’Flynn of Independent Ireland refused to endorse suggestions that tell young people that “drugs are an acceptable part of everyday life on our streets”.

He explained: “Nobody disputes that addiction needs a health response. But health-led and consequence-free are not the same thing. Cocaine, cannabis and other so-called gateway drugs do real and lasting damage.

“Before this Committee asks the State to step back from enforcement, I want to see the basics in place. Where is the national addiction treatment capacity plan? Where are the residential treatment beds?”