A Scottish national caught with €70,150 worth of cocaine in the soles of his sandals has been jailed for 10 years.
The judge suspended the last four years on condition that he keep the peace and be of good behaviour for a period of four years.
Douglas Laird (37) had pleaded guilty to possession of the cocaine for sale or supply on June 7th, 2004, at Dublin airport.
Garda Damien Rogers told Colm Ó Briain, prosecuting, that Laird was stopped after he came off the flight from Amsterdam. A subsequent search revealed more than a kilo of a white substance in the soles of his sandals, which later transpired to be cocaine.
Garda Rogers told Mr Ó Briain that Laird said he was paid €700 to take the drugs to London. He was told by the people who gave him the drugs that he was carrying cocaine but he believed it was ecstasy.
Garda Rogers said Laird was born in South Africa and had moved to Scotland when he was a child. He had spent some time in London before he moved to Amsterdam, where he had been sleeping rough.
Laird has 11 previous convictions, none of which occurred in Ireland, and he has never been charged with any drug offences.
Garda Rogers agreed with senior counsel Mary Ellen Ring (with Mr Luigi Rea), defending, that Laird had been living "hand to mouth" in Amsterdam. He further agreed that Laird had been smoking drugs and using cocaine and ecstasy. Ms Ring Judge McDonagh to accept that her client was at the lowest rung of the financial ladder.