This article is from page 14 of the 2007-12-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
A SHANNON man who was found with a haul of cannabis resin in the boot of his car on the M50 in Dub- lin last year, has been jailed for 10 years.
Ernest Murphy (39) of Inis Ealga, Shannon, was caught with two bales containing 460 ‘nine-ounce bars’ of the drug in the boot of his car on the M50 at Ballymun. The drugs were valued at €815,000 and were des- tined for the Limerick market.
He had just picked up the haul from aman who arrived in a van at a near- by petrol station. The man advised Murphy it would be to his own ben- efit not to ask what was in the bales.
Murphy, who has worked as a bod- yguard for so-called ‘celebrities and dignitaries’, pleaded guilty to pos- session of the cannabis resin for sale or supply on March 4, 2006.
Judge Patricia Ryan at Dublin Cir- cuit Criminal Court suspended the final three years of the sentence hav- ing taken into account Murphy’s co- operation with the investigation and garda evidence that he was acting as a courier rather than a drug dealer.
She also accepted that a psycholo- gist report before the court indicated he was at a low risk of re-offending.
Detective Garda John Fitzgerald told the court that Murphy’s vehicle SE TOMm olocHOMMIDIC(OUMIIU ACUI DIGomEA-NEKOE
gardai were given a description of the car, its registration details and an indication of where it was going to be.
Murphy later told gardai he had received a phonecall earlier that day and was told to meet “a fella” at Port-
laoise. On arrival there, he was told to drive to Dublin and while en route he got other phonecalls which di- rected him to a petrol station on the Dublin-Belfast road.
Det Gda Fitzgerald said that when Murphy arrived there a van pulled in
and a man loaded the drugs into the boot of his car.
Murphy admitted to gardai that he suspected it was drugs but he didn’t know what type. “Your man wasn’t saying much,” he said.
Murphy had no previous convic-
tions and said he didn’t get paid for transporting the drugs.
Defence counsel Conor Devally said Murphy was “very far removed from those involved” and that as far as the hierarchy in drug operations went he was “as low as you can go”. “He was acourier,”’ said Det Gda Fit- zgerald.
Det Gda Fitzgerald agreed that Murphy was of the belief that the drugs were destined for Limerick. He said it would be “not too far off the mark” to describe Murphy as be- ing a vulnerable man who was easily ere
Mr Devally said Murphy had mar- ried at a very young age and his wife left him six years later to form ‘a permanent relationship” with his older brother. He was then effective- ly estranged from his two daughters but had since got back in contact wets aetss0eF
Mr Devally said he was “very re- morseful for finding himself as a cog in a very significant event” and added that he got sucked into some- thing that he should never have got into but he didn’t back out of it when he should have.