Drug addict gets 10 years for heroin possession
A drug addict who told gardaí he was "sick of jabbing myself to death" has been jailed for 10 years by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for possession of heroin valued €153,000.
Anthony McLoughlin (aged 36), who told gardaí he was rewarded with heroin for acting as a courier for a dealer, added: "I am sick of it all, running around for that f****r just to feed my habit."
He pleaded guilty to being in possession of the heroin for sale or supply on May 19, 2007.
McLoughlin, with an address at Iveagh Trust Buildings, Kevin Street, Dublin 8, was also jailed for two years last July by Judge Delahunt for having €2,760 worth of heroin for sale or supply. His 38 previous convictions were for road traffic matters and were dealt with in the District Court.
Garda Kevin Lawless accepted a suggestion from defence counsel Ms Kathleen Leader BL that McLoughlin did not have "a privileged background" and that his father was serving a long sentence in Mountjoy Prison.
Judge Delahunt said it was obvious that McLoughlin was a willing participant in the trade and added that she was satisfied that he was not at the lower end of the scale.
"You were someone who would be considered a significant player who was trusted with drugs to this value," she said.
Judge Delahunt said McLoughlin was "not an innocent person tricked into holding drugs", but took into account efforts he had made to rehabilitate in custody since his remand there. She ordered that the term be served consecutive to the two-year term that she imposed last July.
Garda Lawless told prosecuting counsel Mr Garrett Baker BL that McLoughlin indicated they would find the heroin cache in a washbag in the bathroom when gardaí searched his home at Herbert Park, Rialto on receipt of confidential information.
He also pointed out €3,330 in cash in the bedroom and admitted that, although it was not his money, but that it was the proceeds of drug dealing.
Garda Lawless said McLoughlin claimed that "a third party" had dropped off the drugs, but said he could not name this person or he would "be shot dead".
Ms Leader submitted that her client had been trying to get off drugs since his remand in custody and was now on the drug free wing in prison.
She suggested he was a much different man from that whom the gardaí met in May 2007.
