THREE MEN caught with cocaine and heroin valued at €1.4 million in a Garda drugs operation have been jailed for three years and eight years by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Declan Broderick, Carl Carr and Graham Doyle were arrested by gardaí who mounted the surveillance operation at St Joseph's Hospital, Raheny, and saw Broderick, who worked as a maintenance man there, hand over the drugs to Carr.
Broderick and Carr were both sentenced to eight years in prison. Judge Delahunt said Doyle was "in a completely different category" and sentenced him to three years.
She noted that none of the men shared in the profits of the drugs, and Carr and Broderick were only paid a small amount for their role.
Judge Delahunt told Doyle yesterday: "You were used by a friend because you had a mode of transport. However, you had an opportunity to put a stop to it or distance yourself from it."
Det Garda Richard Byrne told Lisa Dempsey, prosecuting, that Broderick was observed putting a suitcase into a bin at the rear of the hospital and was then seen pointing to the bin when Carr and Doyle arrived in a van.
Broderick (41), Edenmore Avenue, Coolock, Carr (28), Casino Park, Marino, and Doyle (28), Moyclare Park, Baldoyle, pleaded guilty to possessing 5.5kg of heroin and 4kg of cocaine in March 2006.
Det Garda Byrne said Broderick claimed he had been paid €500 and told if anything happened to the suitcase, "I would be killed or my family would be killed."