Sentence adjourned in €250,000 cocaine case

A man who held cocaine valued at more than €250,000 in his disabled mother’s home because he owed €5,000 to a criminal drugs lord has had his sentence adjourned for a year by Judge Katherine Delahunt.

Graham Metzger (aged 23) of Foxdene Green, Clondalkin told gardaí he did not own the cocaine but was holding it for a person he was afraid to name.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of nearly 3.5 kilograms of cocaine for sale or supply at his home on May 24, 2005. He had no previous convictions.

Judge Delahunt who noted at an earlier hearing that a number of Metzger’s neighbours were in court to support him said she was adjourning the case due to his "very special and unusual family circumstances".

Detective Garda Maura McGarry said Metzger had been told his €5,000 debt for cocaine he bought "on tick" would be reduced if he held the cache at the family home where he was the primary carer for his sister, mother and father who all suffered from health difficulties.

Det Gda McGarry told Mr Sean Gillane BL, prosecuting, that gardaí found the cocaine hidden under Metzger’s bed and in a wardrobe during a search carried out as a result of confidential information.

Det Gda McGarry agreed with Ms Isobel Kennedy SC, defending, that Metzger was not a "player" in the drugs trade and came from a law-abiding and respectable family. She agreed also that his offence was "out of character" and he was unlikely to reoffend.

Ms Kennedy submitted that Metzger no longer used drugs.