Schizophrenic South African drug courier given seven years

A South African schizophrenic drug courier has received a seven-year sentence from Judge Frank O’Donnell who said "a message has to go back that bringing drugs here is a big deal".

Fioranda Abdelkhir (aged 43) was in a wheelchair with a broken ankle when Customs and Excise officials stopped her at Dublin Airport on suspicion that she had drugs in her luggage.

Abdelkhir, of Gedult Springs, Johannesburg, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing over 13 kg of cannabis herb, worth over €117,745, on January 1, 2008.

The mother-of-two had been living in one room with her daughter on the equivalent of €20 a week before she agreed to courier the drugs for a man who’d promised her she wouldn’t be caught in Dublin.

Judge O’Donnell said he was taking an "unusual step" of suspending the last five years of her sentence, which he backdated to January 2008 when she entered custody, acknowledging that Abdelkhir was a vulnerable person open to exploitation.

He said he was "sick, sore and tired" of the "continuous procession" of "unfortunate" people like Abdelkhir bringing drugs to Ireland.

"A message has to go back to South Africa that the problems these people create for our ‘unfortunates’ must be dealt with," he said.

Detective Garda Trevor Bolger told prosecution counsel, Mr Fergal Foley BL, that Abdelkhir co-operated fully with gardai on her arrest but didn’t know who was to collect the drugs from her once she’d checked in to the Regency Hotel near the airport.

Det. Gda Bolger agreed with defence counsel, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC (with Mr Aidan McCarthy BL), that his client’s various maladies made her more vulnerable to exploitation.

Abdelkhir told gardai she’d been tempted by the equivalent of €2,000 she was promised for the job, but hadn’t received any of that money.

Mr Hartnett submitted that she had been "taken advantage of" and that although her schizophrenia was currently stable, her ongoing physical ailments and depression associated with chronic pain added to her problems.

Judge O’Donnell said: "I hope the message goes back (to South Africa) that it is a big deal coming in here with drugs."