Cork man found guilty of having €32,000 of heroin claimed he was going to get papers for Chihuahua

A Cork man on trial for having €32,000 worth of heroin who claimed he had only gone to Limerick to get papers for his pet Chihuahua was found guilty yesterday.

The jury of seven women and five men at Cork Circuit Criminal Court took approximately two hours to reach their verdict.

Daniel Wyse, aged 32, from 35 Glenfields Park, Ballyvolane, Cork, denied charges of having heroin for sale or supply at Halfway, Crossroads, Rathduff, Co Cork, on February 15, when its street value exceeded €13,000. That charge puts Wyse at risk of a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said Wyse had put himself off side of full mitigation in light of his conviction following a plea of not guilty.

David Rickard, defending, said: “Given that count one has a mandatory 10-year minimum, I would ask for a probation report.”

Judge Ó Donnabháin said he would direct a probation report on Wyse to see if it could offer anything that would ameliorate the mandatory 10-year sentence.

Wyse was taken into custody. He was remanded in prison until February 23, 2016, for sentencing.

Wyse claimed he knew nothing about the heroin and only travelled to Limerick to get identity papers for his dog.

Wyse chose not to give direct evidence but the jury was told of what he told gardaí when questioned. Interviewed after his arrest at the scene by Garda Jamie O’Riordan, Wyse said he knew nothing about heroin only what he read in the Evening Echo and he thought heroin was a dirty drug which should not be on the streets and that he had only gone to Limerick to get papers for his dog.