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A GARDA DRESSED up as a postman and borrowed an An Post van to deliver 36,000 ecstasy pills to a suspected dealer, a court has heard.
Philip Noonan (49) signed for the parcel and was promptly arrested by gardaí who had been alerted by customs to a suspicious package, later found to contain over €280,000 worth of drugs.
Noonan, of Viking Road, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, was sentenced to two and-a-half years in prison for possessing drugs for sale or supply at his home on June 30, 2015.
He initially told gardaí he hadn’t been expecting a delivery and knew nothing about the package, but pleaded guilty on the day of his scheduled trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The court heard the pills had a market value of €288,000.
Passing sentence today, Judge Martin Nolan accepted that the accused man was not the owner of the drugs but had decided to receive the package for onward delivery.
“He knew what he was getting into,” said the judge. “This was serious drug-dealing even though he didn’t profit to a great degree.
Garda Joanna Myles told Dean Kelly BL, prosecuting, that customs officers had been alerted to a suspicious package that had arrived from Germany to the Portlaoise Mail Centre in early June 2015.
The parcel, addressed to Noonan, showed an anomaly on the X-ray machine and was found to contain 18 vacuum-packed bags of round blue tablets with logos printed on them.
It was then arranged with postal services that a garda wearing an An Post jacket and driving an An Post van would deliver the package to the accused man.
Noonan opened the door and signed for the package, and when gardaí entered the house a few minutes later he was in the lavatory.
He has 20 previous convictions, mostly for minor public order offences and criminal damage, apart from one robbery for which he received a two-and-a-half year sentence in 1992.
The 36,000 pills were analysed and found to comprise MDMA with a market value of €288,000.
Garda Myles agreed with James Dwyer BL, defending, that the accused was not “living a lavish lifestyle”.
Dwyer said his client was the youngest of ten and a chronic alcoholic like his father before him.
He said Noonan had been a truck driver until an early conviction for drink driving had put him off the road, but that he had worked sporadically since then.
“He was an important cog in the machine of drug-trafficking, but he wasn’t the man who was the owner of the drugs,” said Dwyer, before asking the judge if there was any public interest in his client being incarcerated.
Judge Nolan replied that although there were mitigating circumstances, including a letter submitted by Noonan’s sister, he deserved a custodial sentence.
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What happened to the Manatory 10 years for anything over €12,000? Another “Special Circumstance”?
@Mick Jordan: being a scrote seems to be considered a special circumstance. The better a character you are the less leniency is applied
@Mick Jordan: yeah spot on ! He will be out after a year so probably worth the chance ?
@Mick Jordan: but he’s the youngest of ten, and an alcoholic, with a driving ban, and at least one of his many sisters can write ( or maybe she just dictated that letter?). What else could the poor man do? Perhaps we can sentence him to hard labour, so he can join the team of convicts digging the Super Pipe to divert the waters of the Shannon and save us from this accursed Hosepipe Ban?
@Mick Jordan: the Gardai putting their new uniforms to use.
@Clever Jake: We all know your views on Drugs.
@Clever Jake: Inhumane and insane for keeping the likes of Fentanyl and Heroin illegal?
Are you for real??
The amount of damage heroin users do to other people and their property should make it the #1 reason why it should never be legalised.
You are going overboard on your new buzzword of Humanity something fierce.
@Pearse Mc Mullen: so if it was legal do you think they’d do more damage? Or do you think there would be more heroine addicts?
The legality of a drug is usually irrelevant to the users.
@Mick Jordan: its only 6 years for 7 billon fraud.
@Austin hickey: But there is no mandatory minimum sentence on fraud unfortunately, there is for possession of over €12,000 of Illegal Drugs.
That headline had me confused. I thought okay, so when’s he going to do it?
@Elma Phudd: Yeah, surely yer man’s not going to answer the door if they announce it in advance?
@Pseud O’Nym: this one probably would. The picnic is missing a few sandwiches…
so wait I’m confused? reading the title of the article, I thought a garda went rogue and abused his power to smuggle drugs.
but you’re telling me it was a dealer was trying to order drugs and it was intercepted by the guards who borrowed anPost van?
@James O Carroll:
The garda posed as a post office delivery man to entrap the drugs guy.
It’s not that clear immediately, I admit.
@ted hagan: “entrap”? That makes it seem like the Garda was the one in the wrong….
@ted hagan: it’s called a controlled delivery. It’s not entrapment. The gardai carry on the delivery as was already started without their input.
Martin Nolan again.. Here’s a reminder I seen on twitter
@IrishGuyDub (IrishGuy)
Judge Martin Nolan. As corrupted as you can get. Time for him to go.
@James O’Brien: he needs to be investigated!
@Colette Kearns: And he is an Ex Garda too,
you`d think he would be giving out longer sentences,
never seems to jail people with convictions for child pornography, he really is a weird one altogether
Them blue ghosts are some job!
Another “he was just holding it for someone else” what a load of crap!
@Tony Maguire: some amount to be just resting in your account
Surely a mission to track his movements after receiving the package would have led to the real money-makers?
Did they intervene too early? I think so.
@Garreth Fitzpatrick: You mean his dance movements?
Didn’t he know that the postman knocks twice?
Importing garlic six years jail /importing drugs two and a half years by the same judge this judge Nolan is a joke and should be sacked
What a dope importing drugs by post.
I’m confused by that title. So, is Father Jack dead then, or what?
He probably just wanted a uniform that’s practical and comfortable to wear for a change .
By law the judges can only deviate from the mandatory 10 year sentence for possession of 13k worth of drugs for sale or supply in exceptional circumstances. I agree with the concept but the threshold is too low in my opinion. The reality is that the 10 year sentence is imposed in very rare situations which shows that the judiciary ignore the law of the land.
Drugs will destroy western civilisation
Some of them “dressed up “as gurds to beat the sh17 our of people who refused water meters
have your say