Pizza delivery man caught with €120k cocaine jailed

A PIZZA delivery man who was caught with €120,000 worth of cocaine in the Douglas area of Cork was sentenced to six years in jail yesterday with the second half of it suspended.

Judge Patrick J Moran imposed that sentence on Ian Moore, 26, of Ballincurrig Court, South Douglas Road, Cork, yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Detective Garda John Sheedy said drugs squad gardaí received confidential information about Moore. At 8.30pm on July 16, 2008, officers stopped Moore at South Link Road, Cork, for the purpose of searching his car under the Misuse of Drugs Act. A bag was found containing one and a half kilos of cocaine with a street value of over €104,000.

Moore was detained for questioning and a warrant was obtained to search a house at Clifton, Grange, Douglas. Det Garda Sheedy said that less than a quarter kilo of cocaine was found in his bedroom. This had a street value of over €16,000.

The combined value of the cocaine was over €121,000.

Moore told gardaí that he had travelled to Dublin to buy the cocaine and had returned to Cork where he was waiting to be contacted by phone about arrangements for the delivery of the drug. He did not name the parties from whom he purchased the drug.

Defence Senior Counsel Blaise O’Carroll said the defendant had been working in the construction industry, but lost his job with the recession and worked part-time delivering pizzas. “He has taken steps to disengage himself from that (drugs) milieu. He is now working out in the gym and playing pitch and putt and playing darts to rehabilitate himself. The probation report confirms he is at a low risk of re-offending.”

The judge imposed a term lower than the mandatory minimum sentence of ten years on conviction for the offence of having more than €13,000 of drugs.