A Garda operation which is targeting drug dealers in the west paid dividends yesterday when a cocaine dealer, based in Oranmore, was jailed for 10 years.
David Hanley (24), originally from Dublin but with an address at Cois Na Móna, Oranmore Co Galway, was caught when gardaí from the Galway Regional Drugs Squad raided his apartment in Oranmore during race week.
Galway Circuit Court heard yesterday that Det Garda Ann Murphy received confidential information that a consignment of cocaine had been delivered to an apartment in Oranmore on July 31st last year.
Gardaí on duty at the racecourse went to the apartment with a search warrant. Hanley and another man were found in possession of cocaine and a weighing scales.
The second man has since fled the jurisdiction, the court heard.Judge Harvey Kenny said Hanley's lavish lifestyle clearly told him he was a distributor of drugs in the west.
In the circumstances, he believed he had to impose the mandatory 10-year sentence, but agreed to suspend the final two years of the sentence.