Mother who imported €500k heroin jailed for six years

A 32-year-old single mother of two who imported about €500,000 worth of heroin into Dublin has been jailed for six years.

Breda Maguire, born in Ireland but who has lived most of her life in London, pleaded guilty to importing almost two kilograms of heroin into Ireland via the Dublin Port on May 20, 2001.

Detective Garda Jim McDermott told prosecuting counsel, Mr Fergal Foley BL, that gardaí and customs officers received a tip-off about a woman carrying heroin and had stopped Maguire when she arrived at Dublin Port.

The heroin was found in a shoulder bag she was carrying and had a street value, at the time, of €500,000. Det. Garda McDermott said the value of the drugs today would be about €300,000.

After initially pleading guilty and co-operating with gardaí, Maguire left the jurisdiction and was only located and extradited from London late last year. Det. Garda McDermott said, however, that once she was located in Britain, she returned willingly to Dublin.

Mr George Birmingham SC, told Judge Desmond Hogan that Maguire had acted as a drugs mule out of pure desperation. She had received her boat fare for the trip but was not going to receive any other money for carrying the drugs.

Mr Birmingham said the people who had persuaded her to act as a mule had promised to pay debts she had run up as a chronic heroin addict.

Mr Birmingham also told Judge Hogan that in the years since the crime Maguire, who had one child when she was first arrested, has had another child which was only a few months old when she returned to Dublin last November.

Judge Hogan suspended the last three years of her sentence in light of her personal circumstances and in consideration of the fact that she was only on the lowest rung of the ladder where drugs trafficking is concerned.

He also considered Maguire’s continuing attempts to deal with her own addiction which had driven her to acting as a drugs mule in the first place.