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.