Cork man who picked up €32k of cocaine to pay debt sent to prison

He had developed a €1,000 gambling debt and was told that by collecting this consignment of cocaine he would clear it.

Paul Burke, who studied electrical engineering and worked in IT, was using cocaine and gambling. File photo: PA

Surveillance gardaí watched a well-educated man getting instructions by phone to go to a drugs pick-up and they arrested him moments later with a €32,000 stash of cocaine.

That was at Christmas 2019. Now the accused man has been sentenced to five years with the last two years suspended.