An English petty criminal whose arrest ended a plan to establish a new heroin dealing network in Dublin has been jailed for six years.
John Miles was caught with the Anglo-Irish gang's first consignment of heroin worth £50,000 during "Mainstreet" - an operation by the Garda North Central Divisional Drugs Unit against dealing in the O'Connell Street area of Dublin.
Miles (23), of Southgate, Hartlepool, Cleveland, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having the heroin for sale on October 9th, 1997.
Judge Frank O'Donnell said he had to mark the seriousness of the crime with a stiff sentence while taking the guilty plea into consideration. Heroin had wreaked devastation on young people for many years.
Garda Sean McLaughlin told Ms Melanie Greally, prosecuting, a number of gardai were involved in surveillance in the city centre area on October 9th, 1997, following information that a drugs transaction was to take place at the Gresham Hotel.
Miles and a woman were seen entering a bedroom of the hotel and when they left again at 2.25 p.m. they were stopped for a search. The heroin was found concealed in Miles's underpants.
Garda McLaughlin told Ms Greally the 270.7 g of powder recovered contained 78.5 g of the drug which was regarded as a low purity.
Miles was arrested and claimed initially he had bought the drugs at St Michael's Estate. He later admitted he had brought the drugs from Birmingham and was being paid £3,000 to make the trip.
He said he would not name the organisers behind the drugs operation because he feared for his life. Garda McLaughlin said the bedroom in the Gresham Hotel was occupied by an Englishman and an Irishwoman. It was searched and no drugs were discovered, but gardai found £2,000 sterling and £160.
The occupants were arrested, but Miles, who had been staying in a guesthouse on Gardiner Street, was the only person charged.
He had been released only a month early from a sentence in Britain when he was caught with the drugs he brought on the ferry to Dun Laoghaire. He had 44 previous convictions, half of which involved cars and the rest related to burglary and theft.
Garda McLaughlin said Miles had visited Ireland three weeks earlier to contact a buyer in order to set up an import business. The Irish woman was known to gardai for being involved with drugs.
More serious people were behind the scene and this had been the first attempt to establish the business.