Drug-related intimidatory gangs are targeting children in secondary schools and destroying the lives of innocent families unwittingly caught up in a growing drugs problem in the city.

That’s according to a Galway mother who told the Galway City Tribune that her family were “living in fear” after a simple playground dispute triggered threats to her child’s life, the lives of his family, and to their home.

Such was the pressure of the unbearable campaign launched against her son that he attempted to take his own life.

Endless intimidating calls and texts; demands to store and transport drugs; and threats to family and friends are among what has been inflicted on her son, she says, and despite Garda involvement, the misery continues.

“They don’t fear the consequences. He’s had to leave activities he was involved with because they are also there — they’re in school every day. They know your timetable and they know where you are at all times.

“It started when he got into a row with someone he didn’t realise was in a drug gang. They told their ‘elders’ about it and the intimidation started there,” added the distraught mother.

And, yet, she describes herself and her family as among the lucky ones because her son told them straight away what was happening — other parents only find out when it’s too late.

“We’ve been told stories of teenagers who got caught up in this type of thing, whose parents only found out when the guards were raiding their home for drugs they had been intimidated into storing,” she says.

As schools return in the coming days, parents need to be aware this is happening, she says, and they should be vigilant.

“Children can be terrified because they don’t want to mention drugs to their parents. And it might not even be that they have taken drugs — it could be as simple as them having to refused to carry a school bag for one of these people and, all of a sudden, they’re being intimidated.

“When you have kids in first and second year being recruited for drugs gangs, it’s just terrifying. This is in Galway,” she adds.