Two brothers who were caught bagging almost €40,000 worth of heroin in the kitchen of a house in Limerick last December have been jailed for eight years.
Kieran Collopy (40) of St Ita’s Street, St Mary’s Park and Brian Collopy (43) of Kilonan, Ballysimon, both pleaded guilty to the charges, which carried a prescriptive minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Limerick Circuit Court heard the men were at the “top end of the drugs pyramid” in the city. Judge Tom O’Donnell said the brothers were not drug mules or couriers but actively involved in a “cold, calculated, commercial operation” organised for their own benefit.
The judge described heroin as “an absolute scourge on society” which destroys people as human beings and has a devastating effect on those in its grip. He said neither of the men were acting under duress or had a history of drug addiction.
“People involved in this type of enterprise must be responsible for their own actions,” he added.
Brian Collopy, a convicted criminal, was released from prison just 11 months before he was arrested in connection with the drugs seizure last December. He was jailed for six years in 2011 for threatening to kill a witness in a court case but the jail terms was later reduced in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Disability allowance
In his evidence, Det Sgt Alan Cullen, head of the drugs squad in Limerick, said Brian Collopy, travelled to Spain once a month during the 11 month period before his arrest, which he said was unusual for someone in receipt of disability allowance.
His brother Kieran Collopy also has a number of previous convictions and was previously jailed for eight years with three suspended on a change of threatening to kill.
During the sentencing hearing, the court heard the brothers were observed by an undercover Garda meeting a man referred to as Mr X in a fast food outlet in Co Laois five days before their arrest.
Gardaí found 10oz of heroin worth just over €37,000 wrapped in pieces of black refuse sacks on a counter in a kitchen common to two houses merged together in St Ita’s Street, St Mary’s Park on December 15th last.
Det Sgt Cullen said the brothers were disposing of the lose heroin left over from the bagging operation, when they “ran themselves into a corner” after gardaí forced their way into the property acting on confidential information.
Weighing scales, bags and latex gloves were also found and were covered in a brown dust, which was later confirmed to be heroin.
Both brothers denied all knowledge of the drugs on their arrest but later pleaded guilty to possession of heroin for sale or supply contrary to Section 15 A of the Misuse of Drugs Act.