A JURY has found a Garda informant not guilty of importing £1 million worth of drugs from Amsterdam into Dublin Airport in 1995. The jury of eight men and four women took 11/2 hours to reach a unanimous verdict on the ninth day of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr Declan Griffin (29), of Bunratty Road, Coolock, Dublin, had denied six charges of having heroin and ecstasy for sale and supply and importing heroin and ecstasy at Dublin Airport on December 20th, 1995.
The drugs consisted of 2,999.4 grams of heroin and 2,056 tablets of ecstasy, which were recovered from luggage collected by Mr Griffin at the airport. Judge Frank O'Donnell released Mr Griffin, who has been in custody for some months.
Mr Griffin claimed in evidence that he had imported the drugs in an operation cleared by his Garda "handler", Det Sgt Denis Palmer, and with his full consent.
He told the jury he went to Amsterdam at short notice on December 19th with cash to hand over on behalf of a Dublin criminal.
While there he was told there was a difficulty in transporting drugs to Ireland and on the instructions of Det Sgt Palmer he said he would to carry them for a £10,000 fee.
Mr Griffin said he had been sent to Amsterdam with £50,000 to hand over to contacts but was asked to bring back the drugs himself due to problems with the normal transport as a result of the Christmas rush.
He claimed Det Sgt Palmer knew he was bringing the drugs into the State and said he had contacted him in Amsterdam and Det Sgt Palmer told him to agree to carry back the drugs for a £10,000 fee.
He said he believed his role in the operation was to walk out with the bags containing the drugs and as soon as he received direction from a contact via his mobile phone he was to bring them to their final destination where they would end up in Garda custody.
He denied he was making serious allegations to blacken the name of the Garda but said Det Sgt Palmer had "thrown him to the wolves".
Det Sgt Palmer denied his involvement in any prearranged "controlled delivery" and said he had not approved the importation of the drugs. "At no time would I authorise anything of the sort and the first time I became aware of the importation was at the airport that night."
He said he was at the airport when Mr Griffin was stopped and detained by customs officers as a result of a phone call earlier from Mr Griffin, who was his informant for some years.
He believed Mr Griffin was going to give him some information he wanted but he was "horrified and dumbfounded" to learn he had been carrying the drugs.