Polish man jailed for seven years on drugs charges
A Polish man who passed 100 pellets of cocaine through his bowels has been jailed for seven years.
Slawomir Wotjowicz (aged 34) carried the cocaine valued €67,984 in his stomach for money to help pay maintenance for his six-year old daughter by his estranged partner.
Wotjowicz was pressed into doing the drugs run by his sister who is married to a Nigerian, defence counsel, Mr Conor Devally SC, submitted to Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr Devally said his client excreted the cocaine 24 hours after his arrest at Dublin Airport on June 22, 2008. Wotjowicz with an address at Szewna, Zarze, pleaded guilty to possession of the drugs for sale or supply.
Garda Liam Mangan told Mr Fergal Foley BL, prosecuting, that Wotjowicz had no previous convictions in Ireland or Poland.
Wotjowicz told gardai his sister had become embroiled with Nigerians who were trafficking drugs into Europe and she directed him to a house in Amsterdam where he and another man swallowed pellets of cocaine before he was sent to Dublin and the other man to another European destination.
Mr Devally told Judge Hogan that the one good thing to come out of the situation was that there had been at least a partial conciliation with his former partner who had written friendly letters to him.
Judge Hogan said cocaine "is causing untold misery in this city and country" and noted that the crime carried possible life imprisonment or a presumptive minimum 10 years sentence.
He added that in all the circumstances outlined to him he could impose a lesser term in this instance and jailed him for seven years with the final year suspended on conditions, including that Wotjowicz should leave Ireland on his release and not return for at least seven years.
