THE JUSTICE Minister yesterday said police would intensify surveillance in Yermasoyia’s Galatex nightspot centre, as well as in other Limassol sites, after allegations emerged of underage drinking and drug use in the area.
Despite claiming that the media had exaggerated the issue and made unsubstantiated allegations, Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous then made a tacit
acknowledgment of the problem when he said police would increase surveillance of popular youth nightspots and crack down on any recreation centres that provide alcohol to underage teenagers.
Yesterday’s two-hour meeting between the Justice Minister, the Permanent Secretary of the Justice Ministry, and the Police Chief comes in the wake of a police investigation prompted by Wednesday’s Cyprus Mail in which a student counsellor warned that if the current situation deteriorates further, teenagers may resort to prostitution to support their drug habit.
“A few owners of recreation centres operate in an unorthodox and often illegal way,” Sophocleous said, adding that the police would “intensify operations with specific goals,” although he did not specify what they were.
“The owner of the recreation centre who breaks the law will be arrested and will face the court,” Sophocleous said, adding that the government “cannot tolerate” instances of underage drinking at nightspots.
The Justice Minister also said the police “possesses evidence or should possess evidence” that specific nightspots do admit underage drinkers and that the authorities would conduct investigations and prosecute accordingly.
Police Spokeswoman Chrystalla Demetriou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that, according to the police chief, although there had always been efforts to police the Galatex, they would now be intensified.
The chairman of the company that built and now supervises the management of the Galatex complex, George Galatariotis, has alleged that the police have done little to nothing over the last 10 to 12 years to address the problem.
Galatariotis claimed he had even offered police a house within the 24,000 square metre complex in which they could install a permanent on-site police presence but police had not been interested.
Galatariotis also blamed the municipality for providing alcohol licences that should not have been given out and the courts for failing to prosecute illegal constructions undertaken by bars within the centre.
