Jail for grandmother caught with cocaine
A Dominican grandmother has been jailed for three years for bringing €139,000 of cocaine into Ireland.
Elizabeth Royer (aged 47) told gardaí she thought she had been carrying money for drugs and not the drugs themselves when she was arrested at Dublin Airport in July this year.
She said the trip had been organised by someone she had met on the internet who had promised her $5,000 for the job.
Royer, who lives in Guadeloupe, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing almost 2kg of cocaine at Dublin Airport on July 12, 2013. She has no previous convictions in any jurisdiction.
Garda Aidan Gavigan said immigration officers interviewed Royer after refusing her entry through the airport.
She had no return ticket and told the gardaí her route from the Dominican Republic through Frankfurt had been the quickest way to Dublin.
She said she had intended to travel to Paris by train a few days later. Gda Gavigan told Dara Hayes BL, prosecuting, that colleagues found the cocaine in the lining of her luggage.
The garda agreed with Caroline Biggs SC, defending, that her client had provided samples voluntarily and had co-operated fully with the investigation.
He further agreed Royer, who has a “significant illness” arising from a blood transfusion in 1992, had pleaded guilty at an early stage.
Ms Biggs submitted to Judge Patrick McCartan that her client had no intention of returning to Ireland and asked him to take into account her previous good character.
The judge said he didn't accept that Royer hadn't known she was carrying drugs if she had packed the luggage herself and had previous employment in security.
He imposed a three-year sentence backdated to when Royer entered custody on her arrest.
