Former boxer gets 12-year sentence for drug crime

A FORMER boxing champion behind an “evil conspiracy” to import a multi-million euro consignment of drugs was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in jail, with the last two years suspended.

Aviation broker John Kinsella, aged 38, of Carne Wood, Johnstown, Navan, Co Meath, pleaded guilty the day before his trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conspiring with others to import the drugs between September 22 and 26, 2006.

Judge Tony Hunt said the haul — 57kg of heroin and 21kg of cocaine — had an estimated value of €7 million, placing it at the “high end” of trafficking.

The trial had been expected to last more than six weeks with up to 130 witnesses, including members of the Dutch and Belgium police.

The main prosecution evidence was wire-tap recordings obtained by Dutch police of phone conversations between Kinsella and a well-known Scottish drug trafficker, James Rankin.

Kinsella, a former Irish super heavyweight boxing champion, kept his composure during yesterday’s hearing but was taken aback when he heard the sentence. The maximum sentence under the law for conspiracy is 14 years and his counsel Martin O’Rourke BL sought significant credit for his plea of guilty. Judge Hunt said the plea deserved credit as it saved the State time and expense in what was set to be a lengthy trial. But he said the maximum sentence was low and that it constrained him in what leeway he could give.

He said given the gravity of the offence and the fact that Kinsella was a “significant player” in the conspiracy, he imposed a total of 12 years, with two years suspended, backdated to when he was first in custody on September 29, 2006.

“Mr Kinsella was on the second highest rung on the ladder of a well financed and sophisticated international operation to import vast quantities of drugs by air,” said Judge Hunt.

He said Kinsella was not a mule, driven by addiction or poverty, and that his “only motivation was money”.

He did not cooperate and withheld information on “Mr Big”, who headed the organisation.

Judge Hunt said Kinsella gave an “untrue version” of his involvement, claiming that a business associate “Mr Barton Gregory” tricked him into it. Judge Hunt said this was a “cock and bull”.

The judge accepted that Kinsella had got into financial difficulty when a legitimate joint venture ran into the sand. He said Kinsella’s “sporting fall from grace was sharp and severe”. He said it was a “tragedy” that Kinsella would miss the formative years of his young child, born after Kinsella was taken into custody, but said this was his own fault.

Judge Hunt commended the “thorough and painstaking” work of officers from the Garda National Drugs Unit and applauded the level of international cooperation.