A judge yesterday condemned drug couriers who, he said, were saving drug barons from the risks of making their own deliveries. He was jailing a courier for seven years for carrying £160,000 worth of cannabis. "Drug couriers play a major role in the supply of drugs. Without couriers, the drug barons would have to carry the drugs themselves and run the risk of being caught," said Judge A. G. Murphy at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Murphy jailed William Walsh (30) for seven years after he pleaded guilty to having 16 kg of cannabis for supply at Main Street, Ballincollig, on February 8th last. Det Garda Colm O'Sullivan of the Drugs Squad said Walsh, of Vicar's Street, Cork, was apprehended after a high-speed car chase through Ballincollig. Walsh - who was accompanied by his late brother, Patrick - drove at more than 80 m.p.h. on the wrong side of the road after being approached by Det Garda Pat Carey outside the town.
His car crashed into the gable wall of a public house. Det Garda O'Sullivan said Walsh rammed a second Garda car as he tried to reverse out. Gardai found 16 slabs of cannabis wrapped in fertiliser bags and hidden inside a black plastic bag in the boot of the car. Gardai found £7,460 in cash in a search of Walsh's bedroom at Vicar's Street, where lived with his parents and another brother. They accepted £2,355 was won in two bets at a bookmaker's shop earlier that day.
Cross-examined by Walsh's barrister, Mr Ciaran O'Loughlin, Det Garda O'Sullivan agreed that Walsh was a courier and not a drug baron. He had a number of convictions but nothing for drugs and nothing that was relevant to the case. Walsh told the court he had resigned from his job with Musgraves Cash and Carry a week after being caught. Musgraves had offered him redundancy but he resigned. "I was ashamed, to be quite honest . . . I was disgusted," he said.
Mr O'Loughlin said Walsh, by pleading guilty, had saved the State the difficulty of proving that he, rather than his brother, had the drugs. Judge Murphy jailed Walsh for seven years but agreed to review it next May. He also fined him £2,355, and ordered £5,105 cash to be forfeited.