Man pleads guilty to smuggling €132,000 worth of cocaine
A South African man who tried to smuggle €132,000 worth of cocaine into the country by swallowing it in pellets has been jailed for four years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Andrew Joseph (aged 36) of Betrix Street, Arcadia, Pretoria pleaded guilty to the importation and possession of nearly two kilograms of cocaine at Dublin Airport on January 8, 2009.
Garda Keith Morris told prosecuting counsel, Mr Padraig Dwyer BL, that Joseph had flown to Ireland from Argentina via Brazil and Portugal and was stopped at customs for questioning.
A swab was taken from his luggage which indicated the presence of cocaine but a search turned up nothing.
He was asked to take a urine test which showed he had swallowed the drugs and he was taken to hospital.
He said he wanted to use the bathroom and a bedpan was brought to him.
Gda Morris said he witnessed him passing the first of 90 pellets and it took him four days to pass them all.
In interview Joseph said he had been in Buenos Aires and a Nigerian man approached him and asked if he wanted to “make some easy money”.
He was offered €5,000 to take the drugs to Ireland and give them to another Nigerian man. He said he accepted the deal so he could pay for his children’s education.
The cocaine weighed 1.891 kilogrammes and valued at €70 a gram, were worth a total of €132,433.
Gda Morris said he had no previous convictions and had a wife and two children in South Africa.
He agreed with defence counsel, Mr Mícheál O'Higgins SC, that he had been very co-operative in interview and that the drugs did not belong to him.
Mr O’Higgins said Joseph had spent 17 months in prison on this matter and was finding it very hard to be away from his family. He handed in a letter from the prison chaplain who called Joseph “quiet, sensible and genuine” and said he had nothing to do with drugs in the prison.
Mr O’Higgin’s added his client would consent to being deported back to South Africa on his release.
Judge Martin Nolan said he would ordinarily give him a hasher sentence but because Joseph would be serving his sentence away from his family he would find it harder than most other people.
