Men appear in court over multimillion-euro drug seizures
The men appeared at the Criminal Courts of Justice. Stock picture
Two men have appeared in court over the combined seizure of more than €2m worth of drugs over the weekend.
David Royle, aged 62, with an address on Crumlin Road, Dublin, was charged with three counts of possession of drugs for sale and supply and three counts of possession of drugs.
He appeared before judge Stephanie Coggins at Dublin District Court on Monday.
His co-accused, 53-year-old Tomaz Nowosad, with an address at Knightsgate, Rush, was charged with two counts of possession of drugs for sale and supply and two counts of possession.
The Polish national, who has been living in Ireland for 20 years, appeared separately before Judge Mark O’Connell.
Garda Stephen Byrne told the court that the Dublin Crime Response Team had observed and intercepted Mr Royle and his co-accused while carrying out a handover of controlled drugs near a shop on Waterville Road, Blanchardstown, on Friday.
He alleged that Mr Nowosad had been observed taking a Smyths shopping bag out of his car and placing it in the boot of Mr Royle’s vehicle after they had parked beside each other and interacted.
Garda Byrne said gardaí then intercepted the vehicles and the shopping bag contained 18kg of cocaine.
He said a follow-up address at Mr Royle’s home address uncovered 4kg of suspected cannabis and approximately 5,000 MDMA or ecstasy tablets.
He put the value of the cocaine at €1.8m, or €100/g, while the cannabis and MDMA were valued at approximately €56,000 and €50,000 respectively — for a total of €1,906,000.
Patrick Flynn, for the accused, asked the garda if the price of cocaine had gone up.
The garda told the court that the value had gone up from €70/g.
In a later hearing for Mr Nowosad, Garda Colin Byrne said his vehicle had been searched and a further 2kg of cocaine had been located.
He also said a further 7kg of a substance had been located but this had not been tested and there were no charges yet before the court relating to this discovery.
Garda Byrne said Mr Royle had been interviewed several times and made admissions relating to his involvement in sale and supply of controlled substances.
He said the accused was not remorseful in his actions and said that if he knew how much cocaine was in the shopping bag he would have requested more money and said: “I’m not sorry I did it, I’m sorry I got caught.”
The garda also alleged that the accused made admissions to being a courier who was paid €200-€300/kg.
Garda Byrne said it was his belief Mr Royle was due to distribute the controlled substances to drug dealers in the State.
He further said it was his opinion the accused was “a trusted member of an organised crime gang involved in large-scale distribution of controlled drugs in the Dublin metropolitan region”.
Mr Flynn said his client had no recollection of saying particular phrases quoted in court and that video interviews were not available to the sitting.
He said his client enjoyed the presumption of innocence in favour of bail and that the prosecution had to prove the case.
He also said that the value of the drugs may come down when it had all been tested.
Mr Flynn told the court his client had said he got involved in this at a time he was sleeping rough and was homeless, and did not expect the large quantity involved.
He said Royle had one adult daughter and an 11-year-old daughter, in whose life he plays a “very active role”.
He told the court his client worked as an IT technician on around €65,000 per year, but his employment may be impacted by the proceedings.
In Mr Nowasad’s hearing, Garda Colin Byrne said an encrypted Graphene phone had also been seized, which gardaí believe was used for the purposes of distributing drugs.
Mr Nowosad, who availed of a Polish interpreter, was supported in court by his partner and son.
The court heard he lived in social housing and was in receipt of social welfare.
Garda Colin Byrne said the 22 bricks of suspected cocaine had been found in connection with the charges faced by Mr Nowosad — with an estimated value of €2.2m.
However, Mr Flynn noted that only one brick had been tested and the value may come down.
He said that while gardaí had put forward that the accused had made admissions to being aware that what he was moving was drugs, his instructions were that he did not.
He added that his client also enjoyed the presumption of innocence.
Ms Justice Coggins remanded him in custody at Cloverhill Prison with consent to bail, with Mr Royle to appear again on Friday.
His bail conditions would include his own bond of €10,000 with a €5,000 cash lodgement, an independent surety of €5,000, to sign on three times per week at Kevin Street Garda Station, to abstain from intoxicating substances, to surrender his passport, to abide by a curfew, and to have no contact with prosecution witnesses.
Ms Justice O’Connell remanded Mr Nowosad in custody at Cloverhill until Friday with consent to bail on strict conditions including surrendering his passport, signing on to Balbriggan Garda Station three times a week, lodging €5,000 in cash, and having a €5,000 independent surety.
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