French man running 'supermarket of drugs' in Cork city jailed

A 38-year-old French man working in Cork who was running “a veritable supermarket of drugs” in a local party scene was jailed yesterday.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said, “Detective Garda Michael Walsh received information as a result of which he went for a search warrant and found a veritable supermarket of drugs.

“The array of drugs is exceptional. The amounts individually are not overly large. But the obvious inference is that he was dealing openly and for a period of time.

“He was dealing against a background where he was a user himself and a provider for others. Of concern is the fact that he was in good paid employment at the time. He was not feeding a habit.” The judge was also concerned that Khadym Sylla had €4,000 in cash as well as the €25,000 worth of drugs at his apartment at Quaker House, 17 Grattan Street, Cork.

“I cannot see any way to give a fully suspended sentence. I accept he has changed and he has disassociated himself from drug-dealing. Given the amount of the drugs and variety of them the fact that he was not an addict I impose a sentence of three years. Given the plea of guilty, the changes he has made in his life since I will suspend two years of that,” Judge Ó Donnabháin said.

All of the charges relate to November 23, 2018 at his home address. Apart from counts of possessing drugs for his own use and cultivation of cannabis, nine counts relate to having various drugs for the purpose of sale or supply, the drugs in question being: N-Dimethyltrytamine, Dimethoxybromoamphetamine, Lysergide, amphetamine, MDMA, cocaine, Ketamine, cannabis and cannabis plants.

Sinead Behan, defence barrister, said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court, “He was part of a party scene. People were coming to his house and he was giving drugs.

“He has disassociated from the group he was with at that time. In terms of co-operation he accepts the drugs were his.

“He is living in the same apartment. He is in employment for the last four years. He has a fiancée. He is a French national. He indicated he smoked cannabis but that activity has stopped.

“He was slightly removed from reality in terms of the party scene he was in. He fully realises this now and has disassociated himself from it. It is now two years since the offence and he has not come to the attention of gardaí since that time.