A MAN who set up a heroin operation to supply Dublin's north side was yesterday sentenced to nine years imprisonment in the Circuit Criminal Court.
Martin Gannon (31), a father of two, of Lower Dominick Street, Dublin, admitted possessing the heroin, worth £150,000, in his car at Summerhill Parade on August 24th, 1995.
Del Garda Dave McEnerney told Judge Cyril Kelly that the defendant had told gardai he made £1,000 a week supplying small pushers and drug addicts. Gannon also said he had once tried heroin and did not like it. However, he continued selling it.
Gannon claimed he got involved in drugs after he lost his job as a carpenter, but Judge Kelly said one only had to travel through the city to see the present boom in the construction industry.
The defendant could have made a good living from carpentry but instead approached the big drugs operation in a "cold, clinical manner and ran it on a business footing".
Judge Kelly said about 80 per cent of the cases before the court every day were drug-related and mainly involved accused persons from certain parts of the city, the inner city being prevalent. Some of the accused people had been as young as 10 when they started on drugs.
Judge Kelly said he was frequently asked by defence counsel to "leave light at the end of the tunnel" for an accused and he structured sentences to encourage addicts to rehabilitate, but in this case, the defendant, who was not an addict and had no previous convictions, had got involved through greed.
He did take into account that Gannon had indicated at an early stage that he would be pleading guilty.
A defence application for both a certificate for leave to appeal severity of sentence and legal aid to mount such an appeal was refused. Judge Kelly also made a forfeiture order for cash totalling over £9,000.
Det Garda McEnerney told Mr Patrick Gageby SC, prosecuting, that gardai had mounted a surveillance operation in the Summerhill area. Gannon's car, which was stopped at traffic lights, was heading towards the city centre. He was approached and a bulge in his jacket was found to be a bag containing smaller bags of heroin. Gannon became upset and began shouting.
Asked what was in the bag, Gannon replied: "Don't you know what it is yourself, its f. . . ing gear." When Gannon's house was searched, gardai found a weighing, scales, plastic bags and notebooks containing details of his drugs operation. Some £9,000 and £135 sterling was also discovered.
The drugs had a total weight of 300 grams but tests for purity revealed the haul had a street, value of £150,000.
In a statement, Gannon said it was unusual for him to collect such a large amount of heroin.
He said a contact got him an introduction into the drugs scene after he became unemployed.
He described how he would regularly travel to a flat to collect two ounces of heroin. He would cut the drug in his own flat and sell it in one gram batches to smaller dealers for £125 each. He made about £1,000 a week, he said.
Gannon refused to name his supplier, saying he would be shot if he did so.