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.

Detective Garda Barry Hayes told Mr Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, that Perceval said the gang told him "he could either repay the debt by smuggling the cocaine into Ireland or be shot".

Gardaí first became aware that Perceval had imported the drugs in through Dublin Airport after staff at St James’s Hospital contacted them to advice that he had presented at accident and emergency with severe stomach cramps. He admitted to staff that he had swallowed the pellets and he was just about to have the surgery when gardaí arrived.

Perceval, with an address at North Wind Avenue, Pont Clare, New South Wales, pleaded guilty to possession of the drugs at St James’s Hospital on May 21, 2008.

Judge Delahunt ordered that Perceval been deported and returned to his native country as soon as he is released from prison.