Drug importers get 12-year sentences
Two English men who transported cocaine and heroin valued at €2.6m into Ireland in secret compartments in a van have been sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Paul Morgan (aged 25) of Hartersage Road and Francis McConlough (aged 23) of Chestnut Road, both Liverpol, pleaded guilty to possession for supply of the heroin and cocaine on February 17, 2006.
Judge Frank O’Donnell said "the volume and value of drugs brings it into the realm of the most serious the courts have ever had to deal with" adding the amount in this case was "the equivalent of an atomic bomb".
He imposed the 12-year sentence saying he was taking into account the men’s guilty pleas and their roles as couriers.
However, he said that both drug barons and the couriers were equally responsible and essential to the trade: "From where I sit it is easy to conclude that both the couriers and barons are motivated by money and greed with no concern for the havoc they wreaked on users or society as a whole."
He said those in the drugs industry had a "captive audience addicted to the products" who frequently appear before the courts for crimes committed against innocent people.
He noted that the men showed "an extreme reluctance to give evidence", saying there "was a very real danger if any information was disclosed that serious retribution such as serious injury or death would ensue".
He added that "it was the nature of the trade that danger is ever present" and that "execution of one of the top drug barons" showed the "commonality of exposure of all involved in the drugs industry including big and small fish".
Detective Sergeant John Baxter told Mr Fergal Foley BL, prosecuting, that the Garda National Drugs Unit mounted a surveillance operation after receiving information that there was to be a delivery of drugs at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre.
A white combi van, which was seen entering the shopping centre car park at the Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food shop and parking beside a blue Mazda car on February 17, was stopped leaving the car park and found to contain secret compartments.
The two occupants of the van gave false names, which they retained "for a considerable time".
Another van located at the Deerpark Hotel, which was known to have been accessed by the men, contained 13 kilogrammes of heroin, valued at €2m, and one kilogramme of cocaine, valued at €69,615, in a secret compartment in the floor.
Det. Sgt Baxter said the men were cautioned and interviewed but it was not until the very end of the interview that they made "certain admissions".
He agreed with Mr John Peart SC, defending McConlough, that the men had arrived in Ireland in a van through Holyhead and were indebted to a gang to which McConlough owed €4,000, of which €1,000 would be written off if they agreed to carry the drugs: "They made him an offer he could not refuse."
Det. Sgt Baxter agreed with Mr Adrian Mannering SC, defending Morgan, that the reluctance of the men to give information might have been due to a "certain amount of fear".
He agreed that Morgan had become involved in the drug culture in Liverpool and was a heroin-user when arrested but said he believed "he was clean now".
Mr Mannering said Morgan was an "expendable person used by drug barons who were happy to let him take the punishment".
He asked Judge O’Donnell to take into account his early guilty plea, the fact he was a non-national and that despite the danger of assisting the gardaí he had eventually co-operated with them.
Mr Peart also asked Judge O’Donnell to take into consideration his client’s non-national status and his early guilty plea, which he said had been of "material assistance to the courts".
