Pair avoid jail over cocaine on school wall

Birds or animals were lucky that they didn’t come across two bags of cocaine left by a drug dealer on a school wall, according to a judge.

At Ennis District Court, Judge Patrick Durcan made his comment when sentencing two Ennis men to community service as a result of the cocaine bust at St Flannan’s College in Ennis.

Judge Durcan said the presence of two bags of cocaine on the boundary wall at St Flannan’s College in January of this year is evidence of the existence “of an organised system and a supply chain”.

Judge Durcan said the placing of the cocaine under ivy on the college’s boundary wall “was the ‘post box and collection point’ as it were”.

He said: “What is lucky is that birds or animals didn’t come across these bags or else they would have been badly affected”.

The bags of cocaine with a combined value of €200 were detected as a result of a Garda search and surveillance operation focusing on the boundary wall at the Ennis school on January 17.

In the case, Judge Durcan imposed 120 hours community service in lieu of four months jail on Conor Mahon, aged 26, of Ballaghboy halting site, Ennis, after he pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and 120 hours in lieu of four months in jail to Thomas Molloy, aged 25, of Park Avenue, Ennis, after he pleaded guilty to the sale and supply of cocaine on the same date.