A 35-year-old man arrested by gardaí after he picked up €70,000 worth of cocaine from another man under Garda surveillance has received an 11-year sentence with the final four suspended.
Patrick O'Donovan pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine for sale or supply at Tramore Road, Togher, on March 23rd, 2006, when he was arraigned on Tuesday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.
Det Sgt Lar O’Brien of the Cork City divisional drugs squad told the court that gardaí were keeping another man under surveillance in Cork city centre at the time.
They observed the man walk from his apartment on Pope’s Quay to North Main Street where he placed a package in the back seat of a car being driven by O’Donovan.
O'Donovan drove off and gardaí followed him for a period before stopping him at Mount Carmel Road in Greenmount where they sought to search the car.
Initially O’Donovan was co-operative but he then tried to obstruct gardaí by locking the car and throwing the key into the garden of a nearby house and gardaí arrested him.
Kilogram of cocaine
Gardaí retrieved the car and brought it to Togher Garda Station where they searched the vehicle and found a kilogram of cocaine with a street value of €70,000 hidden under the back seat.
O’Donovan – who was living at the time at Argideen Lawn in Togher – told gardaí that he was transporting the drugs to Wilton and he was to be paid €2,000 for the job.
Det Sgt O’Brien said that gardaí found this account incredible as €2,000 was far in excess of what people were being paid in Cork at the time to courier or transport drugs.
O'Donovan was charged and later returned for trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court but he failed to show up and gardaí later discovered that he had fled to Spain.
He was extradited back to Ireland on May 20th on a European Arrest Warrant after gardaí learned that he was serving a sentence in a Spanish jail for a minor drug offence.
In fear
Defence counsel, Tom Creed SC, said that his client had taken full responsibility for the drugs at the time but he was genuinely in fear of those involved in the drugs scene in Cork.
Det Sgt O’Brien agreed that O’Donovan was not a main player in the drugs scene in Cork and that he was not the original target of the Garda surveillance operation on the day in question.
Judge Donagh McDonagh accepted that O’Donovan had pleaded guilty to the offence and that was to his credit but his fleeing the jurisdiction was an aggravating factor.
He accepted he had no relevant previous conviction and he accepted that O’Donovan was genuinely in fear of those that he had dealings with in the drugs scene at the time.
However, it was a serious matter and the legislature had provided for a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years except in exceptional circumstances, said Judge McDonagh.
He sentenced O’Donovan to 11 years but suspended the final four on condition he be of good behaviour and keep the peace for a period of four years.
