Drugs capsule courier jailed for four years

A South African who imported almost €20,000 worth of cocaine into Dublin contained within 35 capsules he swallowed in Sao Paolo in the days preceding his flight to Ireland, has been jailed for four years.

Andries Van Wyk (aged 41), a single man with no partner or children from Johannesburg, South Africa, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to importing cocaine worth €19,360 into Dublin on June 26, 2004.

Garda Steven White told prosecuting counsel, Ms Martina Baxter BL, that Van Wyk arrived in Dublin via Amsterdam from Sao Paolo, Brazil where he had been asked to travel to following a meeting with a man named "Clive" in a South African bar.

Van Wyk told investigating officer, Garda Trevor Bolger that Clive had promised to pay him US$2,000 for taking the package to Dublin and had made his travel arrangements jointly with a Nigerian who called himself "Victor".

He was told to check into a hotel in Dublin and was given contact details for another Nigerian national in the city whom he had to get in touch with and relay his room number to.

Gda White said Van Wyk was stopped at the airport by Customs Officers after he had gone through passport control and received a one month visa to stay in the country.

On request from Customs officers he agreed to a drugs test, the results of which revealed the presence of cocaine. He passed 15 pallets of cocaine out after some time at the airport and passed out the rest at the Beaumont Hospital where gardai took him to a short while later.

Van Wyk told gardai he did not know what was in the package that "Clive" and "Victor" had given him. "It could have been anything", he said, but he suspected it to be heroin.

Counsel for Van Wyk, Ms Isobel Kennedy SC (with Ms Anne-Marie Lawlor BL), told Judge Yvonne Murphy that Van Wyk’s case could be regarded as "exceptional" in exercising the discretion not to pass the minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years under Section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

She said he was a foreign national with no relations or other contacts in Dublin. He had no previous convictions in this or any other jurisdiction and had been in dire financial circumstances at the time he agreed to travel to Dublin with the drugs.

He had also been of material assistance to gardaí, providing them with any information that he himself was in possession of.