Man gets 10 years for possession of €24,000 worth of drugs
A cocaine-addicted father of one who was caught in possession of almost €24,000 worth of drugs has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Judge Frank O’Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
"The lesson must go out to people dealing in drugs that 10 years are awaiting them in prison," Judge O’Donnell said while sentencing Ross Tyrell (aged 27), of The Boulevard, Mount Garrett, Tyrellstown, Dublin 15.
He said that Tyrell had the "equipment of the trade" and was enhancing the value of the drugs by adding glucose to the deals, "putting him in a different category to couriers".
Judge O’Donnell suspended the last three years of the sentence taking into consideration Tyrell’s efforts to get himself off cocaine.
Tyrell pleaded guilty to possession of over 340 grammes of cocaine, worth €23,900, at his home on February 24, 2006.
Judge O’Donnell had previously revoked Tyrell’s bail and remanded him in custody after hearing the evidence in the case.
He said at that hearing that while he sympathised with Tyrell’s parents and siblings this was tempered by other cases "where mothers strain their necks to hear what will happen to their drug infested teenage son who has robbed an 80-year-old woman - these are the true victims of drug crime."
Detective Garda Paul McManus told Ms Anne Marie Lawlor BL, prosecuting, that a search of Tyrell’s bedroom revealed the cocaine in two separate stashes, along with a weighing scales, glucose, a filofax and €4,450 in cash.
Tyrell said he was holding the cocaine for someone he said he was in fear of. He said he had built up a drug debt and had fallen behind in payments. He had two previous convictions for road traffic offences.
Det Gda McManus agreed with defence counsel, Mr Patrick Gageby SC (with Mr Pieter Le Vert BL), that Tyrell came from a very respectable family and there was nothing in his background that could justify this kind of behaviour.
Mr Gageby told Judge O’Donnell that his client had been attending a drug treatment centre for 16 months and was now totally drug free. He was a voluntary football coach for an under 15s team at his local club.
