Eight years for drug running

A Kildare farmer’s son caught transporting tablets and cannabis bound for the black market valued at over €1m has been given an eight- year sentence.

Haulier John Needham, aged 31, who served 11 months in prison in France for an almost identical offence in 2011, was receiving €500 for transporting what he believed were pills.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the farm was in financial trouble and Needham wanted to help his father out. He was described by his lawyers as “easily led” and “particularly naive.”