A DRUG addict who told gardaí he was “sick of jabbing myself to death” has been jailed for 10 years by Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for possession of heroin valued €153,000.
Anthony McLoughlin (36), who told gardaí he was rewarded with heroin for acting as a courier for a dealer added: “I am sick of it all, running around for that f*** just to feed my habit.”
He pleaded guilty to being in possession of the heroin for sale or supply on May 19th, 2007.
McLoughlin, with an address at Iveagh Trust Buildings, Kevin Street, Dublin 8, was jailed for two years last July by the same judge for having €2,760 worth of heroin for sale or supply.
His 38 previous convictions were for road traffic matters and were dealt with in the District Court.
Garda Kevin Lawless accepted a suggestion from defence counsel Kathleen Leader that McLoughlin did not have “a privileged background” and that his father was serving a long sentence in Mountjoy Prison.
The judge said it was obvious that McLoughlin was a willing participant in the trade and added that she was satisfied that he was not at the lower end of the scale.
The judge said McLoughlin was “not an innocent person tricked into holding drugs”, but took into account efforts he had made to rehabilitate while in custody. She ordered that the term be served consecutive to the two-year term she imposed last July.
Garda Lawless told prosecuting counsel that McLoughlin said they would find the heroin in the bathroom when gardaí searched his home at Herbert Park, Rialto.
He revealed €3,330 in cash in the bedroom and admitted that, although it was not his money, it was the proceeds of drug dealing.
Garda Lawless said McLoughlin claimed that “a third party” had dropped off the drugs but said he could not name this person or he would “be shot dead.”
Ms Leader submitted that her client was a much different man from the one gardaí met in May 2007.