A Co Kildare resident has been jailed for four and a half years for bringing nearly €200,000 worth of heroin through Dublin Airport.
Bayo Olanrewaju (48) was carrying most of the drugs in pellets which he had swallowed.
He told gardaí that he was to meet somebody in Dublin and would be brought to a hotel where he would “pass” the drugs.
He said that he had agreed to transport the drugs because he needed to go to Mozambique for his grandmother's funeral and didn't have enough money to pay for the trip.
He went to people who had previously loaned him money and they took advantage of his “constrained financial circumstances”, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Olanrewaju of Ornamental Gardens Demesne, Naas, pleaded guilty to possession for sale or supply of heroin at Dublin Airport on April 15, last (2018).
Garda Aoife Cusask told the court that customs officials stopped Olanrewaju after he arrived on a flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
He told them he worked as a security worker in Naas and had been to Mozambique for a funeral. Officials didn't believe his story and told him they could find no memorials or pictures that indicated he had attended a funeral.
During a search they found a plastic bag with pellets of heroin taped to his inside groin area. He then admitted he had swallowed more drugs and was to be paid €1,000 once he delivered the drugs.
After being passed and analysed the pellets were found to contain 1,305g of heroin with an estimated street value of €182,700.
Cathal McGreal BL, defending, told the court that his client had a cocaine addiction. He said he was a classic drug mule and was therefore “the most vulnerable of drug carriers”.
He said the owners of the drugs do not trust the mules because “they tie you with your life to the concealment of the drugs” and “trust becomes a case of having somebody on the other side to meet you”.
Judge Melanie Greally said Olanrewaju's role was an important one in the transportation of drugs. She reduced a headline sentence of eight years to six years after taking into consideration his admissions to investigators, and his very early guilty plea.
She also noted the absence of other convictions and his efforts to address his drug addiction. She suspended the last 18 months on condition he enter a drug treatment programme.
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