Seven years for Australian cocaine smuggler

An Australian national who had to undergo emergency surgery after he swallowed 80 pellets of vacuum-packed cocaine has been jailed for seven years by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Andrew Perceval (aged 41) later told gardaí that he had been threatened by a gang of Nigerian criminals in Spain to transport the cocaine, valued at €56,000, from Amsterdam to Ireland. He was involved in a fraud with this group for a number of years which resulted in him owing them €60,000.