Man jailed for possession of €850,000 worth of cannabis

A Co Clare man has today been given a 10-year sentence for having cannabis resin valued €815,000 on the M50 last year, which was destined for the Limerick criminal drugs market.

Ernest Murphy (aged 39) of Inis Ealga, Shannon was caught with two bales containing 460 ‘nine-ounce bars’ of the drug in the boot of his car on the M50 at Ballymun.

He had just picked up the haul from a man who arrived in a van at a nearby petrol station where Murphy also had to ask the man for €20 so that he could buy diesel for his vehicle.

The man advised Murphy it would be to his own benefit not to ask what was in the bales.

Murphy, who has worked as a bodyguard for so-called "celebrities and dignitaries", pleaded guilty to possession of the cannabis resin for sale or supply on March 4, 2006.

Judge Patricia Ryan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court suspended the final three years of the sentence having taken into account Murphy’s co-operation with the investigation and Garda evidence that he was acting as a courier rather than a drug dealer.

She also accepted that a psychologist report before the court indicated he was at a low risk of re-offending.

Detective Garda John Fitzgerald told prosecuting counsel, Mr Remy Farrell BL, that Murphy’s vehicle had been under surveillance after gardaí were given a description of the car, its registration details and an indication of where it was going to be.

Murphy later told gardaí he had received a phone call earlier that day and was told to meet "a fella" at Portlaoise. On arrival, there he was told to drive to Dublin and while on route he got other phone calls which directed him to a petrol station on the Dublin-Belfast road.

Det Gda Fitzgerald said that when Murphy arrived there, a van pulled in and a man loaded the drugs into the boot of his car. Murphy asked what the packages were, but was told it was for his own benefit not to ask.

Murphy admitted to gardaí that he suspected it was drugs but he did not know what type.

"Your man wasn’t saying much," he said.

Det Gda Fitzgerald said Murphy had no previous convictions and said he did not get paid for transporting the drugs.

He accepted a suggestion from defence counsel, Mr Conor Devally (with Ms Anne Marie Lawlor BL), that Murphy was "very far removed from those involved" and that as far as the hierarchy in drug operations went he was "as low as you can go".

"He was a courier," said Det Gda Fitzgerald.

He further accepted that Murphy had no money on him at the time and had to ask one of the men he met during the operation for €20 to buy diesel for his car.

Det Gda Fitzgerald agreed that Murphy was of the belief that the drugs were destined for Limerick.

He said it would be "not too far off the mark" to describe Murphy as being a vulnerable man who was easily led.

Mr Devally said Murphy had married at a very young age and his wife left him six years later to form "a permanent relationship" with his older brother. He was then effectively estranged from his two daughters but had since got back in contact with them.

He described Murphy as having "an unblemished career that never brought him into the criminal world before" and that he had worked as a bodyguard for "celebrities and dignitaries".

He was also the official carer for his mentally ill brother for a number of years.

Mr Devally said he was "very remorseful for finding himself as a cog in a very significant event" and added that he got sucked into something that he should never have got into, but he did not back out of it when he should have.