The incident that occurred in Athlone on Wednesday morning 10th March was described by Cllr. Frankie Keena as totally barbaric. There is absolutely no room in our society for those people who deliberately planted pipe bombs in our town that morning. The threat to public safety was very high. If those devices detonated while people were passing these shops someone could have been killed or seriously injured, he said.
It really brings it home to us that Athlone is not immune from criminal behaviour of this kind. I completely condemn this threat to law and order, he declared.
This criminal activity also disrupted a large number of businesses in the area who had to evacuate their premises for safety reasons, it is hard enough to survive in business these days without having to put up with this type of carry on, he added.
I commend the bravery of the Army and the Gardai in the way they handled the situation, said Cllr. Keena.
I urge the public if they witnessed anyone acting suspiciously Tuesday night in this area to contact the Gardai.
These head shops are now not only causing deep concern to parents with the substances they are selling but they have now attracted a criminal element to Athlone who have no reservations as to who they might hurt by planting these bombs. It is quiet obvious that there is a turf war going on as the drug dealers are taking a big financial hit by these head shops.
Hopefully this was a one off but we still need to be vigilant to try preventing this from happening again.
In the meantime we need to work within the law to lobby for legislation to close these head shops down, concluded Cllr. Keena.
