Jailed for importing herbal cannabis

A SOUTH African man who said he was promised a work permit for importing almost €70,000 worth of herbal cannabis has been sentenced to four years in prison at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The court heard sniffer dogs alerted Customs officials to Darryl Theron’s luggage and that Theron refused to name anyone else involved. He told gardaí he had no way of opening the suitcase.

Defence counsel said Theron was a divorced man with sole custody of his two children. He was unemployed in South Africa.

Judge Tony Hunt said he found it unjust to impose the presumptive minimum sentence of 10 years considering Theron’s guilty plea, cooperation with gardaí and personal history. He suspended the last two years of the sentence on condition that Theron leave Ireland on his release and not return here for 10 years.

The judge said it was a sad case and accepted Theron’s remorse was genuine and that he had got involved out of desperation. He said it was a fairly regular thing to see white South Africans being preyed upon to import drugs.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times