Social media influencer held over €6,000 drug stop in Dublin

Tom Tuite

A social media influencer and her boyfriend have been refused bail after being caught driving around with more than €6,000 worth of drugs in Dublin.

Laryssa Sales (19) and Otavoio Martin De Sousa (30), originally from Brazil, were arrested on Sunday during an operation by gardaí from the Kevin Street Drugs Unit.

They appeared before Judge Gerard Jones at Dublin District Court on Monday, charged with possessing cannabis, cocaine, ketamine, MDMA and benzodiazepines for sale or supply at Kevin Street, in Dublin 8.

Garda Darragh Mylod and Gillian Slane told Judge Gerard Jones that officers on mobile patrol stopped a car driven by Mr De Sousa.

The drugs, worth €6,090, were in the glove compartment and €3,000 cash was in the driver’s side door as well as a scales and bagging.

The officers expressed concerns that they were flight risks and said they were caught red-handed. The two gardaí said the pair intended to return to Brazil in August and were not living at the addresses they furnished.

The court heard help-desk worker De Sousa had previously lived with relatives in Cabra, Dublin 7, and was welcome to live there again.

Garda Mylod told Judge Jones the accused man had not disclosed his latest address.

Defence solicitor Evan Moore said his clients only planned on going home to Brazil for a holiday.

Garda Slane alleged that when the car was stopped, Ms Sales “leaned forward to the glove box in what looked like panic”.

The young woman claimed the cannabis, worth €1,640, was for her own use and her partner was not involved in drug trafficking.

Garda Slane told the court that Ms Sales also gave false addresses in Dublin and would not open her phone to confirm her name, adding that the 19-year-old was “very uncooperative” and had not provided identification.

“I don’t know she is who she says she is,” the officer said.

Pleading for bail, Ms Sales told the court she came to Ireland last year and that she was working and studying, and promised that if she were released, she would turn up for her next hearing.

Mr Moore said his client was pregnant and also suffered from a serious medical condition, but the garda said there was no proof of that.

Gardaí expected the case to be sent to the Circuit Court, which has wider sentencing powers. Judge Jones accepted they were flight risks and refused their applications. In Ms Sales’s case, he remarked, “She would be on the next plane out of this country, if she got bail.” Legal aid was granted.

They will appear again later this month.

This article was amended at 2.30pm on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025.