Cocaine smuggler had €47,000 worth of drug hidden in travel bag at Cork Airport

Cocaine worth €47,000 was found concealed in the wheels and frame of a travel bag brought into Cork Airport on a flight from Portugal.

Drugs squad gardaí had some suspicions about an accused man’s claim he was to give the cocaine to “a man in a blue hat”.

Det Sgt Lar O’Brien said he found the account given by the Barundian national, with an Irish passport, to be dubious.

Jeremiah Stefan, with an address at a flat on Cornmarket St in Cork, said he had been eating chips in a London chipper when a stranger approached him.

He was told to fly to Albufeira, meet a lady wearing a green coat, get a bag from her and transport it to Cork where he was to meet a man with a blue hat and blue jacket.

“He generally gave a dubious account that he did not know people and only knew them by the colour of their clothing,” said Det Sgt O’Brien.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a six-year jail term with the last year suspended.

The judge sitting at Cork Circuit Criminal Court accepted the defendant’s account was dubious.

Stefan was stopped at Cork Airport on July 25 after customs officers became suspicious about his travel case.

When it was put through the X-ray machine an organic material was identified. Gardaí were alerted and the 28-year-old was arrested.

The case was taken apart and cocaine was found concealed inside the frame of the case. Further cocaine was found inside the wheels.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said: “It is significant that having had the benefit of the asylum system and being in possession of an Irish passport he travelled freely without hindrance, committing crime within various states of the EU. That is very worrying.”

Stefan pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of the drug for sale or supply when its street value exceeded €13,000.

He claimed that he was to have been paid €3,000 for carrying the drugs.