Man pleads guilty to storing €700,000 worth of cannabis
A man whose family have had to leave their home due to threats from drug dealers who claim he owes them €1,500 has been given a four-year sentence for storing €700,000 cannabis resin in his bedroom.
Kevin Carroll (aged 20) of Plunkett Avenue, Finglas ran up a €1,500 debt due to his €200-a-day cocaine habit and when he was unable to repay it, the criminals left 419 vacuum packed slabs of cannabis for him to store in his bedroom.
Carroll pleaded guilty to possession of the drugs for sale or supply on March 3, 2007.
Judge Rory McCabe said he felt the offence merited a sentence of 15 years but he discounted 11 years for various mitigating circumstances, including Carroll’s guilty plea, his previous good character, lack of previous convictions, his youth, his minimal role and the fact that he had not benefited from the crime.
Garda Niall Stack told Mr Séan Guerin BL, prosecuting, that gardaí found the slabs of cannabis resin in black sacks in the locked bedroom. Gardaí also found "hash pipes" and other drug paraphelia.
Gda Stack said Carroll came from a respectable family and his father was "very upset and shocked" when the drugs were found.
Carroll was not in the house at the time but met gardaí by appointment soon after. He revealed he had run up the €1,500 debt due to his cocaine and cannabis habit and, when he was unable to pay it, his own and his families’ lives were threatened. He said he was then told to store the drugs.
Gda Stack agreed with defence counsel, Ms Isobel Kennedy SC (with Ms Rebecca Smith BL), that Carroll’s fears regarding the drug dealers who he was too afraid to name were "legitimate" and he was in "a state of terror".
He also agreed that Carroll expressed fears that the drug dealers were "still looking" for him and his family had since left the Finglas area. He further agreed he felt that Carroll was "unlikely to reoffend".
Ms Kennedy said Carroll was a carer for his grandmother between the ages of 13 and 19 years old, when his parents separated. Their break-up might have been a "trigger factor" for his drug use and he longer associated with his former drug using friends.
He had taken Zimovane tablets prescribed to his grandmother when he had no drugs and his family was unaware of his drug addiction which he was now beginning to address.
Ms Kennedy said he was "a vulnerable person who was very remorseful". He had co-operated with gardaí regarding his own role but was afraid to name the people who were threatening him.
