Addict gets 12-year sentence for €820k cannabis haul

A drug addict and alcoholic who was caught with almost €820,000 of cannabis resin has been given a 12-year sentence with the final three years suspended by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Father-of-two Alan Farrell (aged 22), of Neilson Street, Dublin 1 and Berkely Street, Phibsboro, pleaded guilty to possession of the 117 kilogrammes of drugs, worth €818,898 in the car park of a public house on April 18, 2009.

Det Garda Enda Gormley told Mr Remy Farrell BL, prosecuting, that a surveillance operation was put in place following information received regarding the suspicion of two vehicles – a Scania articulated lorry and an Audi TT car.

Gardai followed the vehicles to The Coolquay Lodge, The Ward, Co Dublin, where they observed drugs being taken from the lorry and placed into the Audi.

Once the transaction was completed, both vehicles left the car park and travelled in separate directions.

Det Gormley said gardaí followed the Audi, which had three occupants including Farrell, and stopped it at North Road in Finglas where they carried out a search of the vehicle.

A total of five bags of cannabis resin were found in the boot while a sixth bag was found in the rear seat beside Farrell.

Det Gormley said Farrell immediately told him that the two other occupants of the car had “nothing to do with it. It’s (cannabis resin) mine. I smoke a lot.”

The three were arrested and were brought to Blanchardstown Garda Station. Farrell told gardaí he thought he was going “to collect power tools,” and not drugs.

Mr Sean Gillane SC, defending, said Farrell has had a long-standing battle with alcohol and drugs throughout his teenage years and accepted responsibility for the cannabis at the scene of the crime but had admitted he spun a cock-and-bull story about the collection of tools.

Judge Hogan was satisfied that Farrell, who has 22 previous convictions, was “a facilitator” in the offence rather than the owner of the drugs.

Judge Hogan suspended the final three years of the sentence on strict conditions.