Seven years for man who took possession of ecstasy to help pay off daughter's debt
A 49-year-old father who took possession of ecstasy worth almost €500,000 so that he could pay off his daughter’s so-called "drug debt" has been given a seven-year sentence by Judge Frank O’Donnell.
Anthony O’Reilly, with an address at Kincora Court, Clontarf, told gardaí he was in fear for his daughter’s safety and he was worried "certain people" knew where she lived.
O’Reilly, who is separated from his wife and had been living in Amsterdam for 18 years, previously paid for his daughter, who has a serious drug-related illness, to go to Lisbon twice to get a hi-tech anti-drug implant.
He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of six kilograms of MDMA worth €410,000 at the Harding Hotel, Fishamble Street, Temple Bar on September 20, 2007.
Judge O’Donnell said he accepted O’Reilly’s motivation was to get money to pay the debts but said the message must go out to all such "vulnerable" people that drug offences will attract serious sentences.
Detective Garda Frank O’Neill told prosecuting counsel, Mr Paul Greene BL, that a room in the hotel was raided on the basis of confidential information that O’Reilly was possibly in possession of firearms.
O’Reilly was in the room and pointed out the drugs in his suitcase, along with two weighing scales. Gardaí also seized €4,000 which he had been paid to hold the drugs. He was arrested and co-operated with gardaí before asking to be put into custody earlier this year.
Defence counsel, Mr Erwan Mill-Arden SC, said O’Reilly had met a man at a party who offered to give him €5,000 to go to Ireland and hold onto the drugs until he was contacted again.
Det Gda O’Neill agreed with Mr Mill-Arden that O’Reilly’s daughter had come to the Garda station and claimed the drugs were hers but her father had insisted he was responsible.
Mr Mill-Arden said his daughter was in court to support her father but he was reluctant to call her to give evidence because of "her situation."
