A woman who made over €90,000 from drug trafficking has had her assets confiscated by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Jacqueline Griffin (37), Crinan Strand, Sheriff Street, Dublin, who was jailed for six years on January 15th last year after being found with €100,000 worth of cocaine in her house, was stripped of €74,000. The confiscated money included €19,036 in an An Post account that gardaí agreed came from her day job as a ranger at the local park.
Judge Desmond Hogan agreed with Paul Carroll, prosecuting, that although the An Post account money came from legitimate work, the court had the jurisdiction to include it in realisable assets she held, and therefore it could be confiscated.
Judge Hogan noted there had been no withdrawals made from the account since it was first opened in November 2001 and disagreed with a submission made by Griffin's counsel, Luigi Rea BL, that she should be allowed to retain this money.
Det Garda Fergal Harrington of the Criminal Assets Bureau told Mr Carroll that Griffin had lodged more than €100,000 into various accounts over a six-year period.
Gardaí said Griffin, a mother of two, was "if not on the top of the drug trafficking ladder, then certainly on its second rung".
Judge Hogan suspended the last 12 months in lieu of her guilty plea and her co-operation with gardaí and exercised the court's discretion not to impose the minimum 10-year sentence for Section 15A offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act.