Two plead guilty to €22.5m drug smuggling charges

Two men appeared at the Circuit Criminal Court in Monaghan yesterday on charges arising from a drug seizure made on the continent…

Two men appeared at the Circuit Criminal Court in Monaghan yesterday on charges arising from a drug seizure made on the continent.

Michael Howard, from Knocktoran, Co Limerick, and Morgan McGrath, from Bransha, Co Tipperary, pleaded guilty before Judge Matthew Deery on charges of conspiring to import drugs estimated to have a street value of €22.5 million into the Republic between August 1st and 31st 2002.

The charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act related to an attempt to import 591,180 ecstasy tablets; 602,000 temazepam tablets; 132 kilos of amphetamine, more commonly known as speed; 48 kilos of heroin; and 198 kilos of cannabis resin.

Both men were remanded on bail by the judge for sentencing at the next sittings of the Circuit Court in Monaghan on October 10th. Counsel for McGrath, Mr Seán Moylan, said a probation and welfare report would be made available for his client at the next hearing.

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Mr Roderick O'Hanlon, counsel for Howard, had earlier appealed to the judge not to activate a jail sentence until his client got certain family affairs in order.

At the outset of the trial - after the two accused men entered their guilty pleas - prosecution and defence counsel requested and were granted a brief in-camera hearing by the judge in his chamber.

When the case resumed in open court, prosecuting counsel Mr Frank Martin BL called Det Sgt Fergus Traynor to outline the background to the arrests. Det Sgt Traynor said both men were engaged in the preparation of trailers fitted with a false bottom designed to carry drugs. The aim was to conceal the drugs underneath vegetables.

He said the hidden portion of the trailer had been sealed with lead to prevent the contents being exposed by X-ray equipment at the ports.

He told the court that a premises had been kept under surveillance for several days where vehicles and individuals who were known to the gardaí were observed entering and leaving. A lorry and trailer were observed leaving the premises for the continent and a follow-up investigation led to the seizure of a second similar trailer near the French border in Belgium with the cargo of drugs estimated to have a street value of €22.5 million.

He said that after liaising with the Belgian authorities, and further intensive investigations involving a large number of gardaí, extending to counties Limerick and Tipperary, both men were arrested and charged.