A judge has imposed a 10-year prison term on a drug dealer who used to make his living selling ice-cream to children from his van.
At Ennis Circuit Court Judge Francis Comerford handed down the sentence after gardaí caught Paul Collopy (47) of Childers Road, Cloughleigh, Ennis, with €50,780 of cannabis on the grounds of Carnelly House, near the village of Clarecastle on April 16th, 2021.
The judge backdated the sentence to April 2021 when Collopy was first brought into Garda custody.
Imposing the mandatory minimum term, he said Collopy was involved in drug dealing “at a significant level of expertise”. He added that it was “a very grave aggravating factor” that Collopy was serving three separate suspended sentences when committing the offence.
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The judge said Collopy had made himself a target of the local drugs unit by returning to dealing within one year of being released from prison for a dealing offence.
From “a good family’” in Limerick, Collopy used to have two ice-cream vans on the road before he returned to the drugs scene in the middle of the last decade.
In court, concerning the offence, Det Garda Paul Heaslip of the Clare Divisional Drugs Unit described Collopy as “one of the leading players” involved in the large sale and supply of narcotics in the area.
Det Heaslip said that Collopy was “a target” of the drugs unit and was involved in “a sophisticated and well resourced operation”.
Det Heaslip said that gardaí found a large freezer bag of cannabis under the root of a tree on the grounds of Carnelly House and then waited on April 16th, 2021, to see if anyone would come for the drugs.
Det Heaslip said armed support members then took up observation points and along with colleagues from the drugs unit witnessed Collopy come to the root of the tree to retrieve the drugs at 4pm on the same day.
Det Heaslip said Collopy has 78 previous convictions including 43 road traffic offences.