The number of cases where vulnerable South African women were used as "mules" for smuggling drugs into the State had become so common that her own words now seemed to follow a "template script", a judge said yesterday.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne made her comment at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court when the third woman in one day appeared before her for drug trafficking.
She jailed Natasha Carollissen (29), originally from Cape Town, for four years after she pleaded guilty to smuggling cannabis herb worth £35,000 into Dublin on June 11th, 2001.
Carrollisen was living in Johannesburg when she was approached by a Nigerian man who offered to pay her $1,000 to carry a package to Dublin.
Judge Dunne said the procedure in these cases had become "a mantra, a pre-prepared speech for the defence, the prosecution and the judge".
Earlier, she had jailed another South African woman and remanded a third one for sentence on exactly similar charges, also involving Nigerians as the organisers.
She noted that all the South African women were "vulnerable, in dire financial difficulties, and ready and available to be used for what seems to our eyes to be very small amounts of money considering the risk".
Garda Ronan Biggs said Carollissen had been co-operative with gardaí following her arrest at Dublin Airport and she had agreed to partake in a "sting" to arrest her Nigerian contact in Dublin. The "sting" was abandoned, however, for security reasons.
Carollisen's counsel, Mr Patrick Marrinan SC, said she was working "in a livelihood she did not want to be in, and with which she did not agree" when she met the Nigerian man. She was also about to be evicted from her flat.
In a separate case earlier, a South African lapdancer who attempted to smuggle cannabis worth more than £27,000 at the time of the last U2 concert in Dublin was remanded in custody for sentence.
Jacomina Appel (29), a single woman from Johannesburg, arrived at Dublin Airport from Johannesburg via Frankfurt on May 19th, 2000 with the drug concealed in her luggage.
Judge Dunne remanded her in custody for sentence on February 14th next.
Sgt Michael Halpin said Appel told gardaí she had been assured by two Nigerians she met at a house that the package they asked her to bring to Dublin didn't contain drugs when she indicated to a friend she would like to hear U2 in concert in Ireland.
And in the third case, a South African woman who smuggled nearly £44,000 worth of cannabis into Ireland was jailed for 3½ years by Judge Dunne.
Anne-Marie Swanpole (45) told gardaí her alcoholic husband had put her in contact with Nigerians who asked her to make three trips to Ireland with drugs.
She was to be paid 7,000 rand (about £700) for each trip and said she needed the money to support her children.