They were a punch in the face to anyone who had seen their child die from drugs, or become an addict. They were people who made vast amounts of money and flaunted it.
Drug-dealer chic involved putting a jacuzzi in a local authority house, paying for cars, motorbikes and even houses with cash, dining in expensive restaurants, and jet-skiing with the rich kids. And then most would sign for their dole, doing business on mobile phones as they went to the hatch.
Those still living in the areas they supplied became the first targets for community-organised marches and attempts to drive out the trade. The IRA drew up a "hit list" of dealers; and the legislation of 1996 put them under a level of official scrutiny as never before.
In its 22 months of operation the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has put hundreds of people involved in crime under the spotlight. Last year the courts granted orders for the seizure of assets worth more than £2.3 million believed to be linked to crime. More than £6 million was assessed as the amount of tax owed by targeted criminal suspects.
In response the criminal world has changed the way it spends. Dealers have started leasing their new cars, to avoid having them seized by the CAB. Family members are producing certificates of income to account for the money their children are making. And the older generation has become offshore dealers.
One Dublin man living in a new house in Meath and arrested by gardai in connection with drugtrafficking is believed to have produced a certificate from his mother saying she paid him £300 a week from her business.
"They've started putting property in other people's names. And they're also setting up companies to control their money," according to a Garda source. "I think we're going to see more of them moving away out of the jurisdiction and distancing themselves from their operations."
Around a dozen major drugdealers, who control the Irish market, have become the "beneficial owners" of their properties and companies, hidden behind layers of shelf companies and offshore accounts.
Last month CAB secured a High Court judgment for more than £100,000 for VAT and interest against Mr George Mitchell, the Dublin criminal known as the Penguin. Mr Mitchell is awaiting trial in Amsterdam after being arrested unloading stolen computer parts. He was granted a month to appeal the assessment.
Senior gardai believe four major Dublin drug-dealers based in Amsterdam and supplying the Irish market have developed international links. At least one is believed to be trafficking drugs on a European scale, supplying the British as well as the Irish market, in association with a younger man who was involved in trafficking heroin through Britain. This gang has contacts with criminals in source countries in South America and Morocco.
"It's a bit like the Celtic Tiger, and the international successes of Irish businessmen is being mirrored in drug-dealing," one Garda source said.
A number of Dutch criminals are now working closely with Irish gangs. In July Dutch detectives arrested two men following the arrest of four other men earlier in the month. The men were members of a Dutch-Irish criminal gang that had exported up to 20 tonnes of cannabis to Britain, Ireland, Norway and Denmark, police said.
Assets and cash worth 900,000 guilders (£321,000) were frozen. And last week Dutch police seized 24 cars worth 1,000,000 guilders (£357,000) owned by the head of the gang, a 34-year-old Dutch man. A pistol, forklift truck and 100,000 guilders (£35,000) in cash were also seized. The police expect more arrests and had been working with other police forces, including gardai.
The last two years have seen a new level of co-operation between Dutch, British and Irish police forces, with the Garda National Drugs Unit working closely with their Dutch and British counterparts in regular joint operations.
Back in Ireland sons, brothers and brothers-in-law as well as associates are used by the major dealers to run their operations. Many of those dealing at this level are chosen because they do not have criminal records. Last month a Meath heroindealer, Michael Heeney, was sentenced to 12 years. A delivery wholesaler for a London-based drug-dealer originally from the midlands, Heeney's record only threw up a road traffic offence. Within eight months of being caught with bags of heroin, he had progressed to delivering larger batches of the drug to people who would bag it for sale.
The heroin trade is more haphazard than cannabis and ecstasy. Most of the drug is shipped to Ireland through Britain in small amounts, using couriers.
The involvement of London-based Turkish criminals in supplying the Irish market was highlighted when the arrest of a number of them led to a severe heroin shortage in the inner city a year ago. Street-dealers were said to be "auctioning" deals that normally cost £20 for up to £60.
A senior Garda source said: "In the early 1980s importation was confined to a small number of people, like the Fellonis and others. The next wave saw guys who'd been stealing car stereos one day buying mobile phones and flying out to London. It looked like everyone was getting into heroin.
"The incentive was so great. If you were caught you'd serve time, but you'd have £1 million at the end of the day. But there has been a significant decline in the number of people involved in importing."
And the trade is tightly controlled. Senior gardai point to the absence of widespread gangland killings in the last two years as an indication there has been no turf war to replace the drug dealers who have left Ireland.