Dealer threw phone in fire at Cork home during drug search

A Mitchelstown cocaine dealer who was one of the top targets for the Cork county divisional drugs unit broke his phone in two and threw it into the fire when gardaí called to his home to carry out a search.

Garda Cormac Axson said 34-year-old Michael Nixon of Stagg Park, Mitchelstown, Co Cork, was making his livelihood out of cocaine dealing, but he was also acting against a background of addiction.

In one particular search carried out last January, more than €12,000 worth of cocaine and over €3,000 worth of cannabis, together with mixing agent for the cocaine and deal bags, were found to be concealed.

In another incident when he was stopped and searched, he was caught with a bag of cocaine which he was dealing, and he was taken to the local Garda station.

It wasn’t until sometime afterwards that gardaí found a second bag of cocaine which he had tried to conceal down the side of the back seat of the patrol car on his way to the station.

Jailed

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court he was jailed for a total of five years by Judge Dermot Sheehan in respect of three separate incidents when he was caught with drugs for sale or supply, against a background of previous convictions that included having drugs for his own use 13 times, three counts of drug-dealing, and three more of obstructing drugs searches.

“He would have been one of our top targets in the Mitchelstown area,” Garda Axson testified.

In the largest and most recent of his drug-dealing crimes, gardaí from the Cork county divisional drugs unit arrived at his home at 11.30am on January 18 to conduct a search under warrant.

Nixon was present and he reacted to the arrival of gardaí by snapping his phone in two and throwing it on the fire, completely destroying it and making it impossible to recover any data from the phone.

Search

As the search progressed on that date, drugs were found behind a kick-board in the kitchen, consisting of €12,000 worth of cocaine and €3,000 worth of cannabis, together with digital weighing scales and mixing agent for the cocaine.

Garda Axson said: “This was a sophisticated operation, taking cocaine of higher purity and mixing it for more profit. Mr Nixon said during the search: ‘Anything you find is belonging to me. No one else in this house does that sort of thing.’”

Back on July 1, 2023, he was caught with over €2,000 worth of cocaine on his person. And the following day, a further package of the drug was found wedged down the side of the back seat of the patrol car which brought him to the Garda station on July 1, 2023.

He was seen in a drugs transaction in Mitchelstown, selling or supplying to another person, after midnight on October 22, 2023.

No trappings of wealth

Barrister Alan O’Dwyer said that the accused had no trappings of wealth from drug-dealing.

He said that while he had a lot of previous convictions for drugs, he was also capable of staying clear of drugs and living a productive life, something he managed between 2013 and 2020 before relapsing.

Mr O’Dwyer said that Nixon was now attending a relapse-prevention programme in prison.

Judge Dermot Sheehan imposed a total sentence of six years with the last year suspended at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

The judge described the accused as: “An active drug dealer who was on bail for other drugs offences when he was caught with a sophisticated drug-dealing operation in January this year.”