Lessons learned at youth event

“What’s a mule?” Garda Vincent Connell asked young people gathered at the Cavan 365 Youth Diversion Project information event last Wednesday (February 25).

“Can anybody tell me what a mule is?” he repeated, looking around at the youngsters blankly staring back at him.

“Is it not a donkey?” one shouted out, slightly baffled as to why the Garda was posing the question.

“You’re right, it’s a sort of a donkey,” he responded, with more than a few sniggers from the crowd, now fully engaged and curious as to where Gda Connell was taking this presentation.

“It’s a cross between a donkey and a horse,” he said, describing the horse as “big” and “strong” and a donkey as “not as big, not as strong and maybe a little bit thick”.

“The mule is somewhere in between so that’s the name given,” said the officer, before describing what a drug mule.

“Basically someone that’s used to do the donkey work,” he said sternly. “You’re doing the donkey work, while the person that’s getting all the funds from it, they’re not getting their hands dirty.

“They’re targeting young people to do the donkey work, to do the carrying.”

Gda Connell went on to describe intimidation as “a serious coercive behaviour intended to force compliance of another person against their will”, which often times involves actual or threats of violence or the damage of property.

He told the young people that if they do find themselves involved in the use or sale of drugs it is usually being done “for another person”.

“You may be buying the drugs from another person and selling them on or you’re doing that deal for somebody else,” he elaborated.

In most cases Gda Connell outlined callous higher-ups use “force” to “intimidate”. He gave a scenario whereby a young person buys drugs, or is given drugs by a dealer, who then comes back and quickly “demands payment”.

“If that payment isn’t paid, then the intimidation may start.”

The Community Engagement Officer said “a lot of the time the people involved are children” who can be as young as eight years old, sent out to “cause damage” or “drop messages” and “do their [dealers] dirty work”.

He continued: “The product that they’re supplying is illegal so they have no problem at all doing or encouraging actions that are illegal in order to keep that business going.”

Drug related intimidation can be reported to An Garda Síochána in any garda station or by phone, regardless if the intimidation is ongoing or if the debt has been paid or not. If you suspect somebody close to is a victim Garda Connell said it is “no harm to let the guards know that you suspect this”.

He added: “If we don’t know anything, we can’t do anything about it.”

Money mules

Meanwhile Garda Seamus Herron described another type of mule coming to Garda attention- the ‘Money Mule’.

In the last five years alone there had been a “massive drastic increase” in referrals, investigations and prosecutions of adults and young people in relation to this type of illegal activity.

Children of secondary school age are now being targeted to become money mules, said the garda.

A money mule is somebody that allows their financial accounts be accessed for the purpose of funnelling money illegally obtained, to be laundered.

The money has invariably been “stolen”, mostly through online frauds.

Last year 58% percent of money mules caught were under the age of 24 years.

“A lot of the time people can be scammed into becoming a money mule,” said Gda Herron. “The advice of all financial institutions is, we will never send you a link, do not follow links that are being sent to you.”

He also said that money mule herders will try sign people up and get them to agree to pass over their banking information. The herder “sells the idea of easy cash” and presents the opportunity as “having no risks”.

But Gda Herron explained it is a crime and money mules are being convicted under Section 7 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act, landing them with a criminal record, hindering futur travel and career opportunities, as well as creating difficulties in accessing loan and mortgage applications. It can also land the person with a possible prison sentence.

“In a lot of cases, the people did not know or realise what it was they were signing up for but they’re ending up with the convictions,” he said. “You have to be extra vigilant, your bank account is your responsibility for maintaining it and it’s your responsibility to keep it secure.”

Quentin Curran, a young person attending the event, said he found it “very informative”.

“I knew that you could get in trouble but I didn’t think it was that serious.”

An RSA Vision Zero Simulation Truck was also present at the event.

Speaking after trialling the truck, Quentin experienced “what it’s like to be driving on your phone”.

“It showed me that I shouldn’t be driving on my phone,” he reflected.

Drugs & Alcohol Awareness

Monaghan and Cavan Youth Substance Support also spoke at the event.

Speaking to The Anglo-Celt, Service Manager Patricia Boyle said “a lot” of their referrals at present centre around cannabis and alcohol use.

“As they go into later teens, the use of alcohol increases it would appear,” she said, adding that vaping is now a “huge” issue across the country.

They spoke on the impact of alcohol on brain development for young people.

“Just because they don’t see harm doesn’t mean that it’s not happening,” Patricia said.

“It’s something that we do need to talk about with parents as well in terms of making a decision, an informed decision as to whether or not to give your teens alcohol.

“It does impact brain development and it can have life-long impacts for young people as well.

“It remains a normalised behaviour among young people, a worrying trend is the number and increase in parents that are providing there young people with alcohol.

“We do need to take a look at our drinking culture as well as what goes on within our family unit, it’s not an individual problem - this is a cultural and societal issue that needs to be addressed.”

She concluded by saying that information days like this are “really important”.