A young British national has been jailed for smuggling just under half-a-million euros worth of cannabis, which was bound for Donegal, into the State.
Jamie Kearns (23) who has an address in Coventry, appeared before Judge Martin Nolan where Garda Peter Mullins of Dublin Airport Garda Station gave evidence of his having come to court on signed pleas.
Kearns signed guilty pleas in resect of beaches of Sections 15A and 15B of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977,
On the 12th of February last Kearns was “randomly” stopped and searched when coming off a flight from Bangkok via Doha to Dublin.
Customs officers discovered 48 vacuum packs in his suitcase which were found to contain 24.472kg of cannabis, which the court heard has a value of €489,400
Kearns said that he did not pack the bag and made full admissions in relation to the drugs being in his possession.
He had been to Thailand numerous times as he has family there and was facing a debt of £4,000 in relation to his own drug use which has brought “shame” on his family.
The court heard that the accused’s father has previously paid off his son’s drug debts.
Hearing that the drugs were destined for Donegal, Judge Nolan quipped, “Very serious crime, that, Donegal.”
Kearn’s defending counsel, Mr. Dwyer said that his client was “very cooperative” with Gardaí, and that he has a good work history.
He has previously work at a Royal Mail warehouse and as a delivery driver for a furniture company and has no previous convictions.
Mr. Dwyer argued that Kearns had engaged in the offending in hopes of clearing his own debt and that he is “otherwise a person of good character”.
With Garda Mullins accepting that the accused was a “mule”,Judge Nolan said that the he had carried the drugs on behalf of “more sinister third parties”.
He said that the court must take into account the youth of the accused and that he comes from “a good family”.
The mandatory minimum sentence for the offending is 10 years, however Judge Nolan said he would “depart” from this.
“Young people make bad decisions and bad judgements,” he said, adding that as an “English national” prison would be difficult for the accused, who he said “deserves a custodial sentence”.
The court set a headline sentence of 4-6yrs years for the “young and foreign national” before jailing him for 3-and-a-half years to be backdated to the date of his arrest.