An incident in which an Irish Defence Forces soldier became violent and lashed out at fellow soldiers was indirectly characterized as an episode of roid rage attributable to anabolic steroids. But there is a lot more to the story that was not initially reported. It turned out that the soldier may have been a cocaine dealer.
A 23-year old Defence Forces soldier was hospitalized after he became violent, lashed out and inflicted a small amount of property damage at the Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines, Dublin on August 31, 2018. No other soldiers were harmed although the perpetrator received hospital treatment for unspecified injuries.
Military police searched the assailant’s room at the barracks and discovered unidentified substances suspected of being anabolic steroids. The military police alerted officers at the Rathmines Garda Station of the suspected illegal drugs.
“Following a search on Friday night, a quantity of an as yet unidentified substance was discovered, which was handed over to gardaí for examination,” according to a spokesperson with the Defence Forces. “A member of the Defence Forces was transferred to hospital for medical examination where he remains under medical care.”
The gardai submitted the unidentified substances to an analytical laboratory for chemical analysis. Two weeks later, the analysis of one of the bags revealed that the powder was actually cocaine and not steroids.
The gardai still maintain that a small quantity of steroids and some legal fitness supplements were also found in the assailant’s room. However, the discovery of cocaine increases the likelihood that some drug other than steroids precipitated the assailant’s violent outburst. It is probably more likely that he was under the influence of cocaine than steroids if a drug was involved.
After the chemical analysis confirmed the seizure of a Class A drug, Rathmines Gardai arrested the soldier on suspicion of dealing cocaine on September 7, 2018. The soldier confessed during an interrogation while he was in custody. He admitted to possessing cocaine with an estimated value of €1,400. The soldier has since been released from jail and his case has been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Additional chemical analyses on the second bag of drugs are currently under way.
Source:
Schiller, R. (September 15, 2018). Soldier arrested after cocaine and steroids found in city barracks. Retrieved from independent.ie/irish-news/courts/soldier-arrested-after-cocaine-and-steroids-found-in-city-barracks-37320139.html