Cocaine addict with €1m worth of heroin in car to face sentencing

A cocaine addict who was caught by gardaí with €1m of heroin in a car will be sentenced later at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court by Judge Desmond Hogan.

Thomas Whelan (aged 28) of Coultry Avenue, Ballymun had agreed to transport the heroin to pay off a €8,000 drugs "debt" as a result of his €1,000-a-week cocaine habit.

Whelan pleaded guilty to possessing five kilos of heroin worth €1m, found under the passenger seat of a black Nissan Micra at the M50 Toll Plaza on August 9, 2007.

Detective Garda Eva Micheau said a Garda surveillance team followed a white Iveco truck from an industrial estate in Blanchardstown to one in Newbridge where it spotted the Nissan Micra pull up.

Gardaí saw Whelan get out of the car and into the back of the truck where he removed 10 half-kilo blocks of heroin wrapped in carbon ink paper from a cooker that had been packed into a wooden crate.

Det Garda Micheau said a Garda colleague arrested Whelan at the M50 Toll Plaza on his way back to Dublin and noticed there was blue ink dye on his hands and clothing.

Whelan said he was transporting the drugs because of his debt and that he got the job through a friend. He told gardaí he got a phone call to say "the job was going ahead" that day and he thought the packages contained cocaine worth €22,000 a kilo.

Gardaí also found a quantity of cocaine in a raid on Whelan’s former premises at Mellows Park, Finglas which the father-of-one claimed was for his €1,000 habit.