Judge moves to discourage drugs trade route

A trade route is beginning to develop in the supply of illegal drugs from South Africa to Ireland, a Circuit Court judge said today.

Judge Sean O'Donnabhain made the comments as he jailed two men for four years for importing drugs into Cork Airport.

He said the trade route that was beginning to develop was from South Africa to Dublin and he said that judges had to take into account the deterrent effect of sentencing because of this development.

He imposed six-year sentences, with the last two years of each to be suspended.

The judge said that while the legislature provided for minimum mandatory sentences of ten years up to life imprisonment, it could be reduced for exceptional reasons.

One of the exceptions cited by the judge in this case was the fact that any sentence served by the defendants was in a different cultural environment a long way from home.

The two South Africans were caught with €150,000 worth of cannabis resin at Cork Airport when an agricultural inspector checked their suitcases to see if they had imported any foods that were banned under BSE regulations.

When the inspector looked into the bags he saw about 36 kilos of cannabis resin.

Ehregaardt Lowies (aged 23) and Jacques Mills (aged 22) both pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court today to charges of importing the prohibited drugs into Ireland and having a quantity of drugs worth over €13,000 for the purpose of selling or supplying to others.

Detective Garda Brendan Kelly said the two men from Johannesburg were couriers.