A YOUNG woman forced to import £25,000 worth of heroin in her vagina because she owed a drug dealer £600 has been sent back to jail by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Joanna Mooney (22), of Lourdes Road, Maryland, Dublin, was released last March from a 4 1/2-year sentence, but failed to attend Trinity Court drug treatment centre or to keep probation appointments
Judge Cyril Kelly said he had no option in Mooney's own interest but to reimpose the sentence as she was unable to deal with her heroin problem in the community. In prison she would have medical, counselling, psychiatric and psychological services. He would review her case on December 15th, 1997.
Det Garda Gerard Holland told Judge Kelly Mooney was under the influence of her co-accused, William Grogan, when she imported 68.15g of 39 per cent pure heroin in her vagina at Dublin Airport on November 4th, 1994. Grogan was jailed for five years.
When she was originally jailed in October 1995, she told Mr Sweetman she owed £600 for drugs and was told to pay up or else. The option of doing a drugs run was offered as one way to help pay off the debt.
She said she was 18 when a boyfriend introduced her to ecstasy at raves. They then began smoking heroin to come down from the ecstasy. Before long, she was injecting heroin.
Mr Sweetman said Mooney was extremely naive and immature. She had not told her parents until shortly before the October 1995 hearing about her arrest. She had also suffered a previous unhappy experience and tried to commit suicide. Her drug suppliers had used her because she looked presentable and they gambled she would not be stopped at customs.
Mr Justice Moriarty said at that hearing that "macabre evidence" from all the courts revealed that 80 per cent of Dublin crime was drug-related. He could not let drug couriers walk free, creating the impression that "gung-ho and gullible" youngsters could be used to carry drugs at the risk of only lenient sentences if caught.