Convicted drug dealer has cash and car confiscated by court

A convicted Louth drug dealer has had cash totalling some €34,000 and a car confiscated as the proceeds of criminal activity by order of Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Kieran Boylan (aged 37) of Rockfield Park, Ardee was given a five years sentence in 2006 by Judge Hogan for possession of cocaine and heroin valued almost €800,000 in 2003. He had also been jailed in England for seven and a half years in 1997 for possession of cannabis resin

Boylan didn’t contest the application for forfeiture of €31,210 and Stg£2005 in cash, and an Opel Astra car.

He was caught in a garda stakeout operation on December 2, 2003 receiving a package of drugs from an English man named Adrian Hill at the Shell Service Station on East Wall Rd in the Dublin Docklands area.

He pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine worth €204,000 and heroin worth €583,600 for sale or supply on that occasion.

Judge Hogan said at the sentence hearing that he was aware Boylan was in debt and under pressure from the English criminals in his previous conviction who blamed him for "loosing their property" and felt he owed them money to cover their loss but his involvement in a new drugs transaction was still a serious crime.

He noted that a co-accused, who had no previous convictions, was sentenced to three years at Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court arising out of the same crime and suspended the last two years of the five year term on condition that Boylan keep the peace and be of good behaviour for five years.

Det Gda Declan O’Brien told prosecuting counsel, Mr Fergal Foley BL, that the heroin was found on the docks after gardaí had the operation under surveillance. Boylan told gardaí he received "instructions" to pick up the package and deliver it to a third man in Louth.

Det Gda O’Brien said the cocaine was found at a premises in Louth which wasn’t Boylan’s home address. Gardaí also found €30,000 cash at Boylan’s parental home in Drumcar in Louth on that occasion and another €12,000 cash in a microwave at an address in Moorhall Close, Ardee.

Det Gda O’Brien agreed with defence counsel that Boylan fully believed the heroin he was collecting in December 2003 was in fact cocaine and that this indicated he was not in "the hierarchy of the operation".

He accepted that the English criminals who placed Boylan under duress were "serious" people who had information about Boylan’s lifestyle, including where he ate and drank and where his children attended school and that Boylan got involved in this offence to try and pay them back.

Det Gda O’Brien agreed that the third man in Louth who was acting as the distributor of the drugs was given a three years prison term in April 2006 for his involvement in the operation.

Det Gda O’Brien accepted that "by no stretch of the imagination" could it be said that Boylan was more involved than this man.