A 22-year-old courier who was found in possession of up to €8 million worth of ecstasy has been jailed for 15 years by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The seizure was the largest ever for the drug in the State.
Philip Houlihan, The Paddock, Hybreasal, Kilmainham, pleaded guilty to possessing the drug in the boot of a car at St Margaret's Road in Dublin and at his employer's warehouse in Ashbourne, Co Meath, on April 3rd, 2003.
Judge Hogan told Houlihan that he had been found in possession of a huge amount of drugs and was beginning to distribute them in large amounts.
Judge Hogan said he had given minimal co-operation to the gardaí and had been "caught in the act".
He said his involvement in the drugs business was to such a serious extent that it excluded the court from exercising its discretion in imposing a sentence less than the mandatory one of 10 years for such a crime.
He backdated the 15-year sentence to last April to take into account time Houlihan has already spent in custody, but rejected the application by Mr Brendan Grehan SC, defending, to suspend some part of the sentence in light of Houlihan's young age.
Judge Hogan also rejected an application for leave to appeal the severity of the sentence.
Gardaí arrested Houlihan after receiving confidential information. They went to the car park of the White House pub in The Ward in the early hours of April 3rd last year where they saw Houlihan arrive in a black Volkswagen car.
He later drove away in a white transit van which gardaí followed to the warehouse in Ashbourne.
The black car was later stopped by gardaí as it was being driven away by a co-accused, Kyle Croft, The Mews, Killester, Dublin, who was jailed for five years on March 25th for his role in the crime. The car was owned by the company Croft worked for.
Four cardboard boxes were found in the boot, containing more than 122,000 ecstasy tablets stamped "mitsubishi".
Gardaí saw Houlihan leaving the toilet in the warehouse and taking off a latex glove.
Inside the toilet they found a plastic bag containing 6,000 ecstasy tablets and other tablets were found in the bowl of the toilet and on the floor.
A further 49,000 tablets were recovered from the white van and more than 386,000 tablets stashed in 20 boxes were found in the office of the warehouse.
Det Sgt Kelly said the drugs had a maximum street value of more than €8 million. He said Houlihan had two previous convictions for drink driving which had been dealt with at District Court level in 2002.