Alcoholic jailed for importing €460,000 worth of cocaine

A former Tipperary factory manager turned homeless alcoholic has been given a seven years sentence for importing cocaine worth over €460,000 from Chile.

Stephen Cagney (41) originally from Cashel, but now of no fixed abode, was living in a Cork homeless hostel when offered €20,000 to bring a cache of the drug to Ireland.

Cagney was also given €2,500 to buy a suitcase and an airline ticket to Chile. He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the cocaine for sale or supply on May 4, 2007.

Defence counsel, Mr Paul Burns SC, said three years ago Cagney had been married with a daughter and managed a meat boning business in England but after his marriage broke down he lost his job and returned home. He then began to drink heavily and developed psychiatric problems.

Mr Burns said Cagney was now a "down and out" who had tried to commit suicide twice and had spent time in a psychiatric hospital. He was "in a vulnerable state when taken advantage of by very cynical people."

Garda Louise Brady told prosecuting counsel, Mr James Dwyer BL, she arrested Cagney at Dublin Airport with a bag containing almost seven kilograms of cocaine valued at €463,610.

He told gardaí he was instructed to the leave the suitcase in his hotel room in Chile with the door open. He then returned to collect it and brought it to Dublin, stopping off in Frankfurt, Germany.

Garda Brady said that when asked if he knew how much drugs he was carrying, Cagney replied: "I’m not stupid. I know it wasn’t pennies if they were giving me €20,000."

Judge Frank O’Donnell who suspended the final two years of the sentence asked if Cagney was a "Walter Mitty type character" when he heard he had also claimed to have been in Chile for a few weeks "chilling with an ex-girl friend who is a lawyer".