Man carried cocaine in stomach 'to pay mother's medical bills'

A Polish chef who carried over €65, 000 of cocaine through Dublin Airport in his stomach will be sentenced later.

A Polish chef who carried more than €65, 000 of cocaine through Dublin Airport in his stomach will be sentenced later.

Krysztof Kuczkowiak (aged 31) with an address in Poland, claimed the €2,000 he was to get for transporting 95 internally concealed cocaine capsules to Ireland was for his mother’s medical treatment at home.

Defence counsel Mr Padraig Dwyer SC, asked Judge Patricia Ryan in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to "bear in mind" that his client, who has no previous convictions in any jurisdiction, was "not motivated by greed" but by concern for his family’s financial welfare.

Mr Dwyer (with Mr Dean Kelly BL) appealed to the judge that the former Polish Army soldier is now "committed to a crime-free life and putting this episode behind him".

Kuczkowiak, who aspires to set up his own restaurant business in Poland, pleaded guilty to possessing €65,675 of cocaine in his stomach at Dublin Airport on November 14, 2007.

Garda Keith Taylor said gardaí brought Kuczkowiak to Beaumont Hospital after cocaine was detected in his urine following a drugs search by customs officers when he was stopped walking through the airport with a small carrier bag.

A hospital X-ray showed "abdominal abnormalities" and Kuczkowiak passed the 95 pellets overnight before he taken to Santry garda station on November 15, 2007.

He told gardaí he was to make a phone call when he arrived and meet the person who would take the drugs off him.

Gda Taylor said Kuczkowiak claimed he was going to leave Ireland once he got the money, which was to pay for his mother’s medical treatment.

Mr Dwyer asked the judge to give "a great deal of credit" to his client for pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity, to consider his previous good character and the possibility of sending him back to Poland "in the near future" to be with his fiancé.

Judge Ryan acknowledged Kuczkowiak is not on the "garda radar" and put the case back pending a probation services report.