Lawyer satisfied drugs case against Kerry businessman Nathan McDonnell now concluded

Early guilty plea helped reduce headline sentence of 21 years to 12, says solicitor

Nathan McDonnell, aged 44, was jailed for 12 years for importing crystal meth and facilitating an organised crime gang to traffic crystal meth through Ireland. 

A prominent Kerry businessmen who was jailed on Friday for facilitating the deadly Mexican Sinaloa cartel import Ireland's biggest ever seizure of crystal meth is “satisfied” that the matter has been concluded, his lawyer said.

Nathan McDonnell, aged 44, was jailed for 12 years for importing crystal meth and facilitating an organised crime gang in a plot with the cartel to traffic crystal meth through Ireland.

But his solicitor, Padraig O’Connell, said his sentence had been hugely reduced because McDonnell had pleaded guilty while the case was still in the district court.

Justice Melanie Greally said in McDonnell’s sentencing at the Special Criminal Court that she considered the offending “exceptional” and set a headline sentence of 21 years for drug importation and 12 years for facilitating an organised crime gang.

But McDonnell, a father of three with no previous convictions, had quickly pleaded guilty to the charges of importing drugs into Cork on October 16, 2023, and facilitating the activities of a criminal organisation between that date and February 12, 2024.

His sentence was reduced to 12 years for drug importation and six years for facilitating an organised crime group, to be served concurrently.

“He was satisfied that the matter had been concluded,” Mr O’Connell said today.

“And he was delighted with the legal advice he got from his legal team on putting in a signed [guilty] plea because that’s why he got such a large reduction in the sentence. The headline sentence of 21 years was reduced down to 12.

It shows the benefit of a signed plea. If you, at district court level, put in a signed plea, you’re entitled to the benefit because it means the State doesn’t have to prepare the case for trial. 

McDonnell is to remain in the high security Portlaoise Prison even though he was attacked there by another inmate and required surgery to a broken jaw in the days before his sentence hearing.

Mr McDonnell had wire, screws, and two metal plates inserted during surgery to stabilise his broken jaw last week.

Mr McDonnell’s time in prison may be more onerous for him than for other prisoners and he had already been "viciously assaulted", the Special Criminal Court heard on Friday.

His solicitor, Padraig O’Connell, had called for a security plan for McDonnell in prison following the “savage” attack when he was “set upon” by another prisoner near his own cell on the A wing, Mr O’Connell said.

However, a safety plan is a matter is for the Irish Prison Service, he said, and he has not been informed of any beefed-up security for McDonnell.

McDonnell is currently remaining in Portlaoise. Mr O'Connell said: 

He has no choice but to stay where he is put. That’s a matter for the prison service. 

“And a lower security prison would put his own security at risk because it would be lower security for everybody.

“I think he’s as safe as he could be. But all these things are speculative.” 

Mr O’Connell said he was not aware of any threats against McDonnell by the deadly Sinaloa cartel.

Other sources also said that he is not believed to be under threat from the murderous Mexican cartel.

"There is nothing to suggest he is under any danger from the Sinaloa cartel," one source said.

But “someone is owed a lot of money” and other people more intricately involved in the deal “might be worried” about such a threat, a source said.

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said in a statement from his department that “every assault on a prisoner or member of staff is treated as serious and appropriate action is taken by the Irish Prison Service, including the reporting of such assaults to An Garda Síochána for the purposes of investigation and criminal prosecution where appropriate.” 

However, the department said that “it would be inappropriate for the minister to comment on individual cases, or security matters for the IPS". 

The Irish Prison Service said that it does not comment on individual prisoner cases, or on security or operational matters.

McDonnell, who had been the director of 11 companies, had stored a machine containing €32.4m of methylamphetamine, or crystal meth, in his family business, the popular Ballyseedy Garden Centre in Tralee.

Garda intelligence led Customs to stop the container with the machine when it was brought to the Port of Cork for export to Australia.

Angle grinders were used for hours over two days to break into the machine, within which they found bags of white powder, found to be crystal meth with an Irish street value of €32.4m.

McDonnell had arranged for the machine's export to Australia but denied knowledge of what was in it and said he had “turned a blind eye”. 

He said he was to be paid €150,000 for storing the machine, which he had agreed to due to his "dire" financial circumstances at the time.