Heroin dealer jailed for seven years

A PROFESSIONAL heroin dealer who was caught in Cork with one of the biggest quantities of the drug ever seized in the city was jailed for seven years yesterday.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said if Declan Harris, 50, had been convicted of this very serious charge by a jury he would have been sentenced for a period going into double figures.

“You were in this business for profit. I do not take the view, on the basis of all the evidence, that you were doing this to feed a habit.

“The preponderance of the evidence leads me to believe you were a dealer who was also occasionally abusing drugs.”

Detective Sergeant Jason Lynch said the divisional unit of the Garda Drugs Squad received confidential information that a Cork man was driving back from Dublin with a quantity of heroin. Acting on this information they observed Harris driving from Mitchelstown and followed him to Cork city where they saw him pulling into the car park of Mayfield shopping centre.

Gardaí intercepted Harris and brought him and the car to Mayfield Garda Station to conduct a search. They found the illegal drugs concealed in the petrol cap of the car. The stash consisted of 54 grammes of diamorphine, better known as heroin, with a street value of over e10,000.

Harris, 50, originally from Athlone, has been living at various addresses in Cork city since late in 2006, his most recent being at Clarence Place, St Luke’s.

Det Sgt Lynch said the seizure of this quantity of heroin on September 1, 2007, was one of the most significant quantities of this drug in Cork city in 2007.