A Somali man, who helped smuggle two other Somali nationals into Ireland using “look-alike” passports, has been jailed for two years and six months.
Ahmed Ali Adow (39), who has an address in Sweden, where he claimed asylum in 2009, appeared before the Circuit Criminal Court this afternoon after pleading guilty to two counts of breaching Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Smuggling of Persons) Act 2021 for the intentional facilitation of illegal entry, transit, or presence of a person in the State.
The maximum sentence for the offence is 10 years in prison.
Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, told the court that Adow, who was aided by a Somali interpreter, came to Ireland on a flight from Barcelona at 9 am on the 16th of July last. When he arrived at Dublin Airport, he was questioned by an Immigration Officer, Mr Duff, who became suspicious of the Swedish passport he produced.
When Duff asked Adow how long he had spent in Barcelona, he said he had been there for three days, that he hadn’t visited any other countries before coming to Ireland, and that he only intended to stay here for a few days, although he had no return flight booked.
After Duff informed Adow that he would inspect his passport and person, he discovered a Gambian immigration stamp in his passport from the 15th of July, the previous day.
A search of his person revealed a Belgian passport belonging to a male. An Irish passport, an Irish medical card, an Irish residency permit, and a Revolut card belonging to a female were also found.
When questioned about these documents, he pointed to two other individuals, a man and a woman, who had been on the same flight, saying they belonged to them.
Investigating Garda Pat Murray of the Garda National Immigration Bureau gave evidence that Gardaí were contacted after the man and woman presented at immigration with no documents.
When Gardaí interviewed the man and woman, both said they had paid money to leave Somalia, with the man specifying that he had paid $8,000. They said they were taken to The Gambia, where they met Adow, who had arranged their flights for them and given them the “look-alike” passports.
Garda Murray said that the passports were genuine, but that they belonged to individuals who looked very much like the man and woman, who both claimed asylum in Ireland upon arrival.
Both passports had exit stamps from The Gambia, also from the 15th of July 2026.
When Adow was arrested, he accepted responsibility for the two adults with respect to the account they had given. He claimed that he was “under duress” in respect of his actions, Ms McGowan said.
The accused has no previous convictions.
Oisin Clarke BL, defending, said that his client was not at the top level of the smuggling enterprise and that the individuals involved had entered into the scheme willingly.
He said that once the pair had entered the asylum system, it was “difficult” to track them down again.
When Judge Orla Crowe asked if Adow was financially benefiting from the enterprise, Garda Murray said he was “taking a small cut, for sure.” He explained that the Belgian and Irish passports had been reported stolen.
He said that Adow is a naturalised Swedish citizen and that he had benefited from a period in time when Sweden was operating a “relatively lenient asylum regime” and that this has since “tightened up” in respect of family reunification, meaning that the accused had not been able to bring his wife and children to Sweden to live with him as is he wish.
Mr Clarke said his client has “a very limited grasp of English” and has been unable to participate in educational classes in prison, and has received no visits since he went into custody on the 17th of July last.
He acknowledged that his client had played a “vital” albeit “small” role in the smuggling scheme, which he said was a “grave error” on Adow’s part.
Having heard the facts, Judge Crowe said that the accused had “benefited from a generous asylum system” before “becoming involved in this matter”.
She noted that he has a family in Somalia whom he is now “not going to see” as his offending “has to be marked with a custodial sentence.”
The court noted that the smuggling enterprise was “clearly a very sophisticated operation” and that a great deal of effort had gone into matching the stolen passports with people who looked so similar to their owners.
In mitigation, she took into account that he is a “foreign national far from his family who can’t visit him”, that his English is “very poor”, his early guilty plea, and the level of cooperation with investigating Gardaí.
The court set a headline sentence of four years before reducing this to two years and six months, which is to be backdated to the date he went into custody last July.