A MAN has been jailed for seven years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after he acted as a “professional courier” and carried €70,000 worth of cocaine in a pair of runners in his luggage.
Bruno E Silva (40) later admitted to gardaí that he had been paid €5,000 to bring the shoes to Ireland from Mozambique where he lived with his family.
He also told gardaí that he had gone on a “scouting trip” to Ireland earlier that year where he went to Cork to establish a drug contact. He said he had previously made a similar trip to Italy.
Silva, a Portuguese national with an address at Eduardo, Mondale, Maputo, pleaded guilty to possession of the drugs for sale or supply at Dublin airport on November 19th, 2008.
Judge Katherine Delahunt said she was satisfied that Silva had been a professional courier and that he had done so for reward.
She described it as “a very unusual feature of the case” the fact that Silva had effectively carried out “a dry run” on a previous trip to Ireland.
Judge Delahunt ordered that Silva be deported from Ireland upon his release from custody after she commented: “You rank very far from the bottom rung of the ladder in this heinous trade”.
Garda Ciarán Devine told Mr Colm O’Briain, prosecuting, that Silva was stopped by Customs officers in Dublin airport and his luggage was searched. The runners were X-rayed after they were considered unusually heavy.
Silva told gardaí that he had been a reformed drug addict for eight years before he was forced into taking drugs by a gang in Mozambique.
He said he was made transport drugs to a number of different countries.
Garda Devine said Silva claimed his family had been under threat by this gang. Conor Devally SC, for Silva, said there had been both “a carrot and a stick” employed by this gang and accepted that while his client and his family had been under threat, he also agreed to act as a courier for financial gain.