A TAXI driver caught with heroin worth an estimated €1 million in his car and at the home he shared with his partner has been given the 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for this offence by Judge Frank O’Donnell.
Paul Brien (43), Saul Road, Crumlin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the drugs for sale or supply on the Ballybough Road and at Marigold Crescent, Darndale, on April 24th, 2008. He had one previous conviction for larceny.
Det Garda Eamonn Tighe told Paul Greene, prosecuting, that gardaí, acting on information received, stopped Brien’s taxi on the Ballybough Road. Half a kilogram of heroin was found in the vehicle. His passenger has been charged with the same offence but is awaiting trial in February.
A further 4.5kg (10lb) were later found in the wardrobe of the bedroom he shared with his partner.
Judge O’Donnell said he could see “no redeeming features” in the case and noted “if the mandatory minimum sentence is to have any relevance, I have to impose it”. He gave Brien credit for time already served in custody.
Det Garda Tighe said that Brien later took full responsibility for the drugs and said he had agreed to transport the smaller haul from “point A to point B” under the direction of another person in order to pay off a cocaine debt he had run up. He also took responsibility for the larger haul found in his home and claimed that he had been holding it for the same person.
Det Garda Tighe agreed with Luan Ó Braonáin SC, defending, that his client was in fear of the people for whom he was storing the drugs and accepted that he had reasonable grounds for believing this. He accepted that Brien was not the “brains behind the operation” and did not have the “trappings of wealth” associated with drug dealing.
Mr Ó Braonáin said Brien had three children from his first marriage which ended in 2006 due to the problems he had with his cocaine addiction.