Drug dealer tried to wash €14k of heroin down sink

A DRUG DEALER who responded to his arrest for the offence by cranking it up to a higher level later in the year was jailed for seven years yesterday.

Paul Joyce, also known as Paul Hurley, was caught by the divisional drugs unit with five deals of heroin worth a total of €150 in January 2009 only to be caught in August with over €14,000 worth of the drug at his home as he tried to wash it down a sink.

Detective Sergeant Jason Lynch said Joyce barricaded himself into his flat on Harwick Street, Wellington Road, Cork, on August 20, 2009, to stop gardaí getting in. Some officers could see through a window that he was ripping up plastic bags and washing the contents down the kitchen sink.

To gain entry, officers had to smash down the top half of the door as the bottom half had a radiator up against the inside of it.

Judge Con Murphy said: “Having been caught early in 2009 he definitely cranked up his operation later in the year.”

Defence barrister, Mahon Corkery, emphasised the fact that the defendant was only 22, had no previous drug-dealing convictions but had a personal drug problem.

“This snowballed and he began to deal heroin. His partner is five months’ pregnant and this has had a profound effect on him. He has deep remorse for visiting this drug upon the city,” Mr Corkery BL said.

Det Sgt Lynch said the defendant admitted having heroin for sale or supply on both occasions – the first being detected during a surveillance operation targeting the dealing of heroin on Shandon Street, Cork.

The defendant said he was receiving instructions from another person who was directing him how to proceed with the sale and supply of the drugs.

Det Sgt Lynch said the evidence did not support this claim and gardaí believed the defendant was running his own drug-dealing operation.

Joyce had been living at Shancastle, Clondalkin, Dublin, with his partner.

Judge Murphy imposed concurrent three and seven-year sentences for the January and August 2009 drug-dealing offences, respectively, and five years for obstructing Detective Garda Kieran Sheehan by washing diamorphine down the sink as gardaí were about to search the premises.