10 years for man in €3.3m heroin case
A man who was caught with €3.3m worth of heroin in what Judge Desmond Hogan described as "a transit house and distribution centre" has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Jason Kelly (aged 24), of Bluebell Road, Bluebell, Dublin 12, had no previous convictions but had agreed to transport the drugs in a bid to pay off a debt he had built up through drug dealing.
He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drugs for sale or supply at Greenogue Business Park, Newcastle on December 19, 2006.
Mr Conor Devally SC, defending, told Judge Hogan that his client made a serious error in judgement and character and "was trying to be something he wasn’t, a criminal and a player".
He said he had been paying back his creditors in "dribs and drabs" but he knew some day they would get him.
Mr Devalley said even though the drugs found were worth "a horrific" amount of money Kelly would have carried out the operation for anything.
Judge Hogan didn’t accept that the fact that Kelly got involved in this illegal business to pay off a drug debt was a mitigating factor.
"If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas", he said and added that a person getting involved in criminal activity to pay off a debt is still illegal but when someone gets involved in criminality to pay off a debt that resulted from illegal operations in the first instance, the situation was exasperated.
He did not accept that Kelly was at the lowest rung of the ladder "though he certainly was not at the highest" and added that he was trusted by those who were employing him with such a large amount of drugs.
Judge Hogan accepted that Kelly had no previous convictions and said this had to be taken on board considering "a harrowing psychologist report" which indicated that he didn’t get the best start in life.
He said he was providing a very valuable service to those higher up the chain and providing the beginnings of a "transit house and distribution centre", driving the drugs from A to B.
The last year of Kelly’s sentence was suspended on condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for five years upon his release from prison.
Garda Brendan Breen told Mr Paul Carroll BL, prosecuting, that confidential information led to Kelly's car being stopped and searched at Greenogue Business Park, revealing 17kgs of heroin.
He immediately took responsibility and indicated to gardai that they would find a further half kilo in his mother’s home.
Mr Devalley (with Mr Dean Kelly BL) told Judge Hogan that his client’s mother moved out of Dublin to get away from Kelly’s father when he was a young child.
They returned a few years later when they were in extreme poverty, having to live in a squat before they were placed in a local authority house. Kelly then became out of control and was often out of school.
