{"id":906007,"date":"2026-04-20T03:33:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/906007\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T03:33:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T03:33:35","slug":"cuckooing-drug-dealers-sent-cannabis-worth-100000-to-elderly-persons-home-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/906007\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cuckooing\u2019 drug dealers sent cannabis worth \u00a3100,000 to elderly person\u2019s home \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

An elderly person in Northern Ireland was sent cannabis worth \u00a3100,000 in the post from \u201ccuckooing\u201d drug dealers,<\/a> a Sinn F\u00e9in MLA has said.<\/p>\n

Newry and Armagh representative Aoife Finnegan warned that the growing practice of targeting a vulnerable person\u2019s home for criminal activity<\/a> like drug deliveries was deeply concerning.<\/p>\n

The PSNI also said that while cuckooing has not previously been a significant issue in Northern Ireland, it was \u201cbecoming more common\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cRecently the address of an elderly person was used to post a significant amount of cannabis,\u201d Ms Finnegan said.<\/p>\n

\"Co<\/a>\"‘We’re<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe parcel of the drugs with a street value of \u00a3100,000 was posted to the home. <\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, family members realised that something wasn\u2019t right about the parcel and contacted the authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

With dealers often targeting those who are socially isolated, she said it was a growing method with \u201cbrazen heartless criminals\u201d wanting to transport cannabis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese peddlers of death and destruction within our communities\u2019 care about nothing but making money,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that we are alert to these criminal activities of the drug dealers. People need to realise that unfortunately this is now recognised as a common method of dealers getting delivery of drugs. <\/p>\n

\u201cShould anyone become aware of any similar type of incident within their own family network, please report it immediately\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"SinnSinn F\u00e9in Newry & Armagh MLA, Aoife Finnegan. <\/p>\n

A police spokesperson said they were alerted to a number of suspicious packages at an address in the Crossmaglen area<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon examination of the packages it was discovered that they contained suspected cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cOffences of this nature may fall under the remit of cuckooing, which is a form of criminal exploitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, whilst cuckooing as an offence was not previously assessed to be a significant issue in Northern Ireland it is becoming more common and therefore it is essential the public report any instances to police so that they can be thoroughly investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone with information on Thursday\u2019s incident can call police on 101, quoting reference 1869 for April 16.<\/p>\n

Last June, the Justice Minister Naomi Long made cuckooing and drink spiking criminal offences through legislative consent motions – extending parts of the Westminster Crime and Policing Bill to Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elderly person in Northern Ireland was sent cannabis worth \u00a3100,000 in the post from \u201ccuckooing\u201d drug dealers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":906008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[20726,80374,188,535,51334,1144,1618,11528,16,15],"class_list":["post-906007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-cannabis","tag-co-armagh","tag-crime","tag-drugs","tag-elderly","tag-northern-ireland","tag-psni","tag-sinn-fein","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116434934759894083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}