Rehabilitated west Cork drug dealer had received death threats

A WEST Cork man caught with €65,000 worth of drugs received death threats from Cork city drug dealers to repay a debt, Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard yesterday. He was given a five-year suspended sentence after evidence he had completely rehabilitated.

The defendant had faced the possibility of a mandatory minimum jail sentence of 10 years and up to life imprisonment.

Judge Patrick J Moran said there were sufficient exceptional circumstances to allow him to depart from the mandatory provisions in the case against David Daly, 23, of Ballineen. Daly spent 20 months in residential drugs treatment and is continuing in aftercare programmes.

Garda Donal Neville said that Daly had received death threats to repay a debt which his family felt they had no option but to repay.

Prosecution barrister Donal McCarthy said: “Given the world we live in nothing could be done about those threats.”

Daly was caught with €65,000 worth of cannabis resin and admitted that he had been dealing drugs in Bandon, Clonakilty and other parts of west Cork, before his arrest on February 16, 2004.

Garda Neville said the gardaí received confidential information in relation to Daly’s activities and they stopped his car at Castletownbere on that date.

Ten kilos of cannabis resin and 32 ecstasy tablets were found in the rear of the car. He had €2,750 in cash which was confiscated from him as it represented the proceeds of drug dealing. That money was forfeited to the State yesterday.

Tom Creed, senior counsel, said Daly had turned his life around since this time. The reason he undertook the treatment course for drug addiction was that he had been using cocaine.

Daly was buying drugs in Cork city but he would not tell Gardaí who his seller was. He claimed that he and his family had been threatened if any such information was given.

Daly told Judge Moran that he was doing a course in counselling and psychology so that he could become involved in counselling people involved in similar kinds of trouble with drug use.

Mr Creed SC said the defendant had gone to great lengths to repay the community the wrong he had done.