A 25-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years by Judge Frank O'Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday for transporting the drug ecstasy with an estimated €2.6 million street value.
Jonathan Ducque, Bayview Avenue, Ballybough, was also given a seven-year sentence, to run concurrently, for armed robbery of a house, which Judge O'Donnell described as reminiscent of a "Gestapo dawn raid".
Ducque, who said he was promised €1,000 to act as a drugs courier, pleaded guilty to possession for sale or supply of the ecstasy on June 16th, 2003. He also admitted the aggravated burglary of the house in Springfield, Tallaght, on August 26th, 2002.
The court heard that gardaí had a surveillance operation in place in Sheriff Street, where they were alerted to the presence of a green Fiat Brava, the boot of which was suspected to contain a large amount of ecstasy tablets.
Gardaí searched the vehicle and found 174,872 tablets.
Judge O'Donnell noted that a family were sleeping when Ducque and two accomplices entered their house, armed with machetes and a handgun.
They woke the owner, his wife and their four-year-old child, pointed the gun at the father and threatened to kill his young daughter if he did not hand over the takings from his business.