Gardaí seize €1,200 cannabis in house raid

Gardaí with confidential information that drug-dealing was taking place from a house in Douglas, Co Cork, raided it and found cannabis with a street value of €1,200.

Inspector Bill Duane said yesterday at Cork District Court that a warrant was obtained to search a house at The Grove, Broadale, Douglas, on April 20, 2013.

Garda Owen O’Mahony obtained a search warrant based on confidential information in relation to drug-dealing taking place at the address. Gardaí called to the house and met David Kennedy. During the course of the search they found a quantity of cannabis on a bed in the house and a further quantity in the living room.

Kennedy, 25, who now lives at Abbotswood Mews in Rochestown, admitted when questioned by gardaí that he had been supplying friends with the drugs.

Kennedy followed up this admission with a plea of guilty to the charge of having the drug for the purpose of sale or supply to others.

Defence solicitor Graham Hyde said the defendant, who is now working, was unemployed at the time and fell into using cannabis for which he would not have paid the kind of money at which the prosecution valued the drug.

“He should not have been engaged in this, but I think the State would accept it was not a profit-making venture, it was a sharing with friends,” Mr Hyde said.

Judge Leo Malone said it was nonetheless a serious offence as it involved young people being affected by the use of drugs.

The judge put sentencing back until next month for a probation report on the accused, the report to include an assessment of Kennedy for doing community service instead of going to jail.