A Bolivian national who had a brief involvement with a drugs laboratory was jailed for eight years today at Kilkenny Circuit Criminal Court.
Juan Carlos Melgar Alba (39), a car parts salesman in Santa Cruz, had pleaded guilty in March to a single charge of having cocaine with a value in excess of €12,697 for sale or supply to others.
Today the court was told that 2557 grams of cocaine with a street value of €255,700 had been seized in a raid on a flat in Kilkenny city on July 16th of last year.
Details of a sophisticated cocaine laboratory were outlined to the court by Supt Gordon Ryan. He said that the drug was impregnated into clothing that was then imported into Ireland.
Through an elaborate use of several chemicals including acids and ammonia, the cocaine was then extracted from the clothing.
A Garda source said that this was the first operation of its kind discovered in Ireland and it is believed that only one similar laboratory has been uncovered in Europe.
The court heard Alba had no involvement with the importation of the impregnated clothing or with the purchase of the chemicals which had been bought before he arrived in the country.
But his fingerprints were found on equipment in the flat and traces of cocaine were found in his clothing. Alba arrived in Ireland on July 13th, 2003. He said he was to collect $20,000 for which he would get $2,000.
He made contact with some people in Dublin and on July 16th and travelled to Kilkenny with two men. They met four more men at a flat in the city that was raided that night by gardai. Although the flat was empty at the time of the raid, Alba was arrested shortly afterwards.