Man jailed for eight years over €37k stash of cocaine in Cork

A man caught with over €37,000 worth of heroin on St Patrick’s Day in a car near a motorway toll booth in Cork had a lifestyle that included trips to Las Vegas, despite social welfare being his only declared income.

Gardaí seized the €37,000 worth of drugs on the M8 Cork-Dublin motorway on March 17, 2015, Detective Sergeant Lar O’Brien said yesterday.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin imposed a 10-year jail term, with the last two years suspended, on Wayne McCullagh, aged 33, from Beechmount Avenue in Navan, Co Meath yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

McCullagh pleaded guilty to possession of heroin for sale or supply at Skahanagh North, Watergrasshill on March 17 contrary to the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Det Sgt O’Brien said the accused claimed to have been paid €500 to act as a courier to carry the drugs. He told drugs squad gardaí he had been given a phone the previous day to carry out this crime but examination of this phone showed inconsistencies in the version of events he gave to gardaí.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said this was a worrying case, particularly in light of the fact that McCullagh had been sentenced to three years in jail for drug dealing 10 years ago.

“This fella says he was dealing in drugs to assist his mother who was recovering from cancer,” the judge said. “That is a fairly gross explanation, bringing his poor mother into his web. It is just incomprehensible.”