Two English women caught with controlled drug cathinone as they boarded a flight from Dublin to America have received three-year sentences at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Katherine Delahunt suspended the final two years of the sentences of Sarah Rodriguez (21) and Emma Peacock (25), who were stopped and searched by a US customs officer at Dublin airport.
Peacock, of Percy Court, North Shields, and Rodriguez, of Advocate House, North Shields, both in Newcastle, pleaded guilty to possession of the substance on August 17th, 2006, and have been in custody since that date.
Luigi Rea, defending Peacock, said: "If the substance was left on a street corner, most drug addicts wouldn't know what it was."
Garda Damien Rogers told Shane Costelloe, prosecuting, that the drug was more commonly known as "Khat" and was a "leaf-like narcotic" largely unknown in Ireland. He said each woman was carrying about €6,000 worth of the drug and initially told gardaí they did not realise it was illegal in Ireland.
The women expected to be paid £1,000 for carrying the substance into America where it is also banned.
Judge Delahunt said the fact the drug was not well-known in Ireland did not lessen the seriousness of the offence.