A MALAGA holiday with all expenses paid ended in Mountjoy Jail for an English couple. They brought back almost £300,000 worth of cannabis resin for a major Irish drugs syndicate.
Before the Spanish holiday, Stephen Hawkins and Jamie Virginia England made a short all expenses paid visit to Dublin for a "dry run" and a meeting with the criminals involved.
A chaperone accompanied them to Malaga and they were met at Dublin Airport by a fourth person. Their personal bags were carried by others, Del Garda Patricia McGarrity told Judge Cyril Kelly at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
They had been promised £1,000 between them to act as couriers. Hawkins immediately admitted he was carrying cannabis when stopped by Customs but became pale and weak when he saw the huge amount in the case.
Hawkins (21), unemployed and separated, with an address at Chamberland House, and England (18), a mother of one with addresses at Kendal Parade and Parklane, both Edmonton London, admitted importing a total of almost 28kg of cannabis resin on September 17th, 1995.
Hawkins was jailed for four years and England for three, both sentences to date from their arrest on September 15th, 1995.
Judge Kelly said he would be remiss in his duty to society if he did not jail importers of drugs.
Del Garda McGarrity agreed with Mr Patrick Marrinan for Hawkins, that gardai were aware of the identity of the drugs barons involved. Two of the major figures were in Dublin and the chaperone mentioned was in London.
Mr Marrinan said Hawkins submitted to temptation when offered a "free" holiday in Malaga. Gardai were satisfied he was not involved in financing or organising the operation.
Mr Paul McDermott, for England, said she had became involved to pay off a debt to a loan shark soon after having a baby.
She was just short of her 18th birthday when arrested and the separation from her child was causing her great concern.