A courier who delivered and stored a massive quantity of cannabis worth approximately €12 million has been jailed for eight years.
David Dempsey (33) was arrested in Coolock with 500 kilos of the drug stored in cardboard boxes in the back of his Ford Transit van after he had travelled from the Poitín Still pub in Rathcoole.
A subsequent search of Dempsey's home revealed a number of holdall bags stored in his attic and one on his bed containing quantities of cannabis resin. The total quantity of cannabis resin seized was 930 kilos and this had a market value of approximately €12 million euro.
Detective Sergeant Greg Sheehan said the bag lying on the bed contained 10 kilos of cannabis and was left there by Dempsey who had travelled that morning to the Trinity Sports Grounds but the person he was supposed to meet never showed.
Gardaí also found a number of firearms and ammunition in his attic, including a Scorpion machine pistol and nine rounds of ammunition and three magazine clips for it, a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and a magazine, and two air pistols with a large quantity of pellet balls.
Dempsey, from Belcamp Lane, Coolock, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of the unlawful possession of cannabis resin worth in excess of €13,000 euro for sale or supply and the unlawful possession of firearms on August 16th, 2002.
The court was told that Dempsey had been delivering and storing the drugs for a number of months before his arrest and was usually paid per drop. The sums he was earning were in no way in proportion to the amount he was arrested with.
Judge Hogan said the mandatory minimum sentence for the crimes that Dempsey had pleaded guilty to was 10 years but because he admitted the offences and cooperated with the gardaí he was entitled to invoke discretion in the sentence that was imposed.