A man who accidentally contracted Hepatitis C in custody has been jailed for 10 years for having £500,000 worth of cocaine for sale.
John Francis Conlon (58) was caught with the cocaine at the East Link Tollbridge road in Dublin during a major Garda surveillance operation in 1992.
Conlon, a native of Westport, Co Mayo, married with three children and with an address at Allisons Road, Miami Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having the cocaine for sale or supply on September 3rd, 1992.
Judge Cyril Kelly at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court directed that his sentence date from September 1994, when he was taken into custody in England and held for extradition after having absconded while on bail.
Judge Kelly had presided at the trial of two co-accused in the same case - Eamonn Kelly Snr of Furry Park Road, Killester and Elizabeth Canabas Yamanaha, a Spanish-Cuban exile who then lived in Miami Beach, Florida.
Kelly was jailed for 14 years and Yamanaha for seven years. Her conviction was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Judge Kelly suspended the final five years of Conlon's sentence on the grounds of his age, his serious bad health, his peripheral role in the crime, his guilty plea and the 3 1/2 years he had spent in custody.
Detective Superintendent Martin Callanan told prosecuting counsel Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC (with Mr George Birmingham) that Conlon left Ireland in 1959 and owned property in Miami and in Norfolk, England. He had no previous convictions.
Det Supt Callanan said members of the Garda Serious Crime Squad saw Conlon with Kelly in a van in Dublin Airport car park. Kelly drove them around Dublin.
Conlon withdrew £2,000 from his account at the Bank of Ireland, Pembroke Road, and eventually went to Yamanaha's room at Jury's Hotel, Ballsbridge. Kelly remained in the van.
Conlon emerged carrying a plastic bag, and rejoined Kelly.
Kelly drove off, followed by the surveillance team, and went through two sets of red traffic lights in the East Link tollbridge direction. Irishtown Garda station had been alerted and Det Inspector Tom Dixon stopped Kelly's van.
Both Kelly and Conlon refused to co-operate in a drugs search and were arrested. The plastic bag containing the cocaine was found in a panel aperture in the van.
Det Supt Callanan said Conlon initially denied ever having seen or carried the plastic bag, or handled it. He later claimed he was told by Kelly to give £2,000 to Yamanaha who would "give him something". He said he thought there was "something shady" about the bag but did not know what was in it. i he flew from Miami Beach to London in the company of a Rome-based Italian businessman called Francis Bonetti who had been introduced to him by another Irishman sometime previously. The Italian took a flight from London to Rome while Conlon flew on to Dublin.
Det Supt Callanan agreed with Mr Hugh Hartnett SC (with Mr Tom Clancy), defending, that Eamonn Kelly Snr had many serious criminal convictions.
He also agreed that Conlon had a serious heart condition and had not seen his family for almost six years. He had been in custody in England from December 1994 until May 21st last year.
Mr Hartnett said Conlon contracted Hepatitis C while in custody by handling bloodstained clothes belonging to an infected fellow-inmate. He also suffered from serious heart trouble.