Tipperary man who agreed to import over €1.2 million of cocaine jailed for seven years

By Sonya McLean and Declan Brennan

A Tipperary man who agreed to import over €1.2 million worth of cocaine into Ireland after he came under pressure to pay off a debt has been jailed for seven years.

John Joseph Carey (57) of Rathanny Golflinks Road, Tipperary Town pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having 16.6 Kg of cocaine for sale or supply at Dublin Port on October 10th, 2022. He has no previous convictions.

Detective Garda Damien O’Neill told Oisin Clarke BL, prosecuting, that gardaí were in receipt of confidential information in September 2022 that a large consignment of cocaine was going to be brought into Ireland through Dublin Port the following month.

The intelligence suggested the day the drugs would be brought in, and customs were alerted.

Carey was the driver of a camper van that docked at 6:20am on the morning of October 10th. The vehicle was scanned twice, using increasingly enhanced equipment and a drug dog, but nothing was found.

Det Gda O’Neill said that ultimately the drugs were found concealed in a Perspex box in the chassis of the vehicle. He accepted a suggestion from Mr Clarke that this box was effectively built into the frame of the vehicle.

The drugs were found and estimated to have a street value of €1,232,560.

Carey immediately accepted responsibility. He said he had borrowed €100,000 from “travelling people” to assist him in his landscaping business, but that the loan had risen to €250,000.

He told gardaí he was tracked down and encouraged to get involved in transporting the cocaine. Carey, a father of two, told gardaí that they would find his DNA and fingerprints on the drugs.

Dominic McGinn SC defending, asked the court to accept that his client had made full admissions and had never come to garda attention previously.

Judge Martin Nolan said Carey had transported the drugs “for some type of reward”.

“He had his problems, and he resorted to this escapade to deal with these problems,” Judge Nolan said.

Judge Nolan accepted Carey’s plea of guilty, his co-operation with the garda investigation, his lack of previous convictions, and his long history of work.

He described Carey’s culpability as “low to mid” and accepted that he did not own the drugs before he imposed a sentence of seven years.