Man found with 'cannabis farm' at Cork property avoids jail on condition he return to Lithuania

A Lithuanian man with an elaborate cannabis grow-house in Ballyhooly was released after several months in jail to return home within a fortnight.

Igoris Kolesnikovas faced sentencing at Cork Circuit Criminal Court where he pleaded guilty to cultivation of the illegal drug.

Garda Roy Mythen gave evidence in the case where Judge Dermot Sheehan imposed a sentence backdated to when the accused went into custody and suspended it from now on condition that he would return to Lithuania.

The defendant affirmed in the circuit court the plea of guilty that he had entered at district court level to the charge of cultivating cannabis plants.

A search was carried out at the rented home of the 39-year-old back on April 13, 2022.

Some 79 cannabis plants were discovered with a potential street value of over €63,200. To cater for elaborate ventilation and electrical supply systems, numerous walls had been damaged.

“It was essentially a cannabis farm. He was not present at the time of the search, but his fingerprint was found on a cup in [the] kitchen,” Gda Mythen said.

“Interviewed later, he admitted cultivation of cannabis. He said he was put under pressure by other individuals.”

The accused left the jurisdiction following the 2022 raid at his home in Cork, but by February of this year he was arrested in Germany on a European arrest warrant and was brought back to Cork.

He had been in Ireland for about two months when the cannabis farm was detected.

Defence barrister Alan O’Dwyer said of the accused: “He voluntarily admitted watering the plants and that was his role in the cultivation of plants and that he was under threat from another man.

Judge Sheehan said: “This was a growhouse of tremendous sophistication in Ballyhooly in Cork, detected in a garda operation to detect such factories.

“He came under the influence of another person with a criminal connection and was under pressure to become involved in watering these plants.”

The judge imposed a sentence of three years, backdated to June, but he suspended the balance of the sentence on condition that Kolesnikovas would leave the jurisdiction and remain out of the jurisdiction for seven years.