Man found with 'arsenal' of guns gets five years
A cocaine addict found with "a veritable arsenal" of guns and ammunition on the M50 has been given a five year sentence by Judge Donagh McDonagh at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Ciaran Hanlon was under surveillance by gardaí while he drove a stolen car from Dublin to Edenderry, County Offaly, where he was seen loading the lethal cache, and then back to Dublin before the gardaí stopped him on the Blanchardstown slip road off the M50 on March 17, 2005.
Detective garda Derek Hughes told Ms Dara Foynes BL, prosecuting, that Hanlon first claimed he had "acquired" his arsenal of four shotguns, a rifle and ammunition because he was under threat from a serious criminal.
Hanlon aged 25, of Kilcarrig Crescent, Tallaght later told him he had been instructed to take the guns back to the city by another person to whom he owed a debt but the gardaí had been unable to verify this.
Det. Gda Hughes said the guns had been stored at a house belonging to the mother of Hanlon's co-accused, Ronan Tyrell, a widow who no longer lived there. Tyrell received a two year suspended sentence at Portlaoise Circuit Court.
Det. Gda Hughes said gardaí had received confidential information that a stolen car parked at the Ibis Hotel in Clondalkin was to be used in a serious offence.
Gardaí began surveillance of the car, which had been stolen in a burglary in Roscommon some months earlier. They saw Hanlon get out of another car which had pulled up and get into the car being watched and tracked both cars travelling in convoy to the Edenderry house.
The cars then returned to Dublin through the M50 toll bridge and were stopped by gardaí when they halted at a red light on the Blanchardstown slip road.
Det. Gda Hughes agreed with Mr Ronan Kennedy BL, defending, that Hanlon "surrendered immediately" and that although he was not forthright at the beginning of the garda interviews, maintaining he was going to dispose of the weapons, he did give a reasonably "genuine account" of events the next day.
Mr Kennedy submitted that his client had been working as a security guard in a pub some time before the incident where he had "developed a weakness for cocaine" and had accrued a debt to drug dealers as a result.
He said Hanlon was "a man open to exploitation" and accepted that if it had not been for the quick action of the gardaí the guns could have ended up in dangerous hands.
Ms Martina Buckley, a prison links worker with Cabra Aftercare Project who has been working with Hanlon, said he has been drug free since June 2005. She said at the time he felt he "had been pushed into a corner and his whole life was upside down".
Det. Gda Hughes told Ms Foynes the guns had been stolen in burglaries in Counties Kilkenny, Laois and Meath and were legally held by private owners. The origin of the ammunition had not been established.
Judge McDonagh said Hanlon had been appended with the weapons "as a result of a superbly mounted garda operation" and imposed a five year sentence with the last two years suspended.
He also imposed a two year sentence for driving while disqualified and disqualified him for a further ten years.
Judge McDonagh made a restitution order in respect of the guns and ordered the ammunition destroyed.
