Young woman jailed after being caught with cocaine worth €70k

A young woman who was caught in a taxi with €70,000 worth of cocaine was jailed yesterday for six years with half of the sentence suspended.

Jennifer Heaphy, aged 22, of 59 Kerryhall Rd, Fairhill, Cork, was sentenced at Cork Circuit Criminal Court for possession of cocaine for sale or supply at Sallybrook, Glanmire, Co Cork, on March 23, at a time when its value exceeded €13,000 — the threshold figure for a mandatory 10-year sentence.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said he disagreed with the submission made by senior counsel Alice Fawsett that there was an element of pre-determination for the defendant because of the entrenched nature of drugs in her family background.

The judge said: “You had choices, you made choices, you have to live with them.

“You did this for financial gain for you or others and you gave no material assistance to the guards.”

Detective Sergeant Lar O’Brien said Heaphy was seen receiving a package from a man who got out of a car and approached the taxi in which she was sitting. Drugs squad gardaí moved in and stopped the taxi as it was driven from the scene. The accused was found with the kilo of cocaine in her possession.

Heaphy had a previous drug-dealing conviction in relation to a much smaller value of cannabis. The judge said this was a serious matter in the context of the present case.

Defence barrister Donal O’Sullivan said Heaphy had moved out of the family home since the matter was in court last week.

Alice Fawsett senior counsel said: “Her family is a well-known family dealing with drugs. In one version she is entrenched, in another way she did not have a chance in that environment, it is hard to say.”