A drug gang who spent several days keeping a container with over €4 million worth of drugs under surveillance were themselves under surveillance all the time by undercover gardaí, a judge heard before he jailed all three for eight years.
Det Garda Gavin Curran of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that detectives were watching Gentjan Dodaj (39) and his brother, Donatel Dodaj (22) and Daniel Afedoaei (22) from the time they came to Cork in early August 2023 to collect the drugs.
Det Garda Curran outlined the background to the case after the Dodaj brothers, Albanians from Paradise Row, Athlone, Co Westmeath; and Afedoaei, a Romanian from Sli an Aifreann, Athlone, Co Westmeath pleaded guilty to possessing €4.2 million of cocaine for sale or supply on August 5th, 2023.
He told Judge Jonathan Dunphy that, on foot of confidential information, officers from the GNDOCB travelled to the Port of Cork’s container terminal at the deepwater berth in Ringaskiddy where they identified a refrigerated shipping container they suspected contained drugs.
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Gardaí found it contained 60 kilos of cocaine in 1kg packs hidden behind panelling. They established that two Apple Airtag tracking devices had been embedded in two of the 1kg packs of cocaine, before they put the drugs back as they had found them.
Gardaí were keeping the container under surveillance when the three accused, who had driven down from Athlone in a car and a van, arrived in Ringaskiddy on August 3rd.
Gardaí watched the gang as they in turn watched the container being collected by a haulier, who brought it to Ferrero’s premises on the Kinsale Road in Cork, where its legitimate cargo was unpacked before the haulier brought the unloaded container back to his yard.
The gang, who had ski masks and tools in the back of their van, then entered the haulier’s yard around 2am on August 5th and gained access to the container, where they used the tools to remove the panelling and get the drugs which they were planning to bring back to Athlone.
The entire operation was captured on CCTV and gardaí, moved in and arrested the three accused at Dunkettle, just as they were heading back to Athlone with the drugs.
Det Garda Curran said that Gentjan Dodaj had co-operated with gardai at interview but had not identified who it was that he was collecting the drugs for. Both Donatel Dodaj and Afedoaei had similarly admitted their involvement but again refused to say who was behind the operation.
He said neither of the Dodajs had any previous convictions. Afedoaei had a previous conviction for money laundering after he was caught with €160,00 in Auburn Village in Athlone on April 2nd, 2021, and he was subsequently sentenced on November 4th, 2023, to four years for the offence.
Defence counsel, Tom Creed SC pleaded for leniency for Gentjan Dodaj, saying that he had come to Ireland in 2006 and had a young family in Athlone, and only got involved in collecting the drugs after he ran up debts to family and friends when setting up a car valeting business.
Defence counsels, Ray Boland SC, for Donatel Dodaj (22), and Jane Hyland SC for Afedoaei, also pleaded for leniency for their clients pointing out that they, like Gentjan Dodaj, had both indicated that they would be pleading guilty at an early stage, thus sparing the state the expense of a trial.
Det Garda Curran agreed and told the court that Donatel Dodaj said he had become involved to pay off a €60,000 debt to a criminal back in Albania and Afadoaei was trying to pay off €50,000 to a criminal after he lost €160,000 of another criminal’s money when he was caught laundering cash.
Judge Dunphy said that, while none of the three were either owners or the financiers behind the haul, the fact that those who did own the drugs trusted them to collect such a huge consignment meant that they were a necessary part of the operation to distribute the drugs.
He fixed a headline sentence of 13½ years for all three to indicate the gravity of the offence. He reduced this to nine years in the case of both Dodaj brothers, because of their guilty pleas which spared the state a trial, and he suspended the last 12 months in light of their previous good character.
He reduced the 13½ year sentence to 9½ years in the case of Afedoaei, to take account of the fact that he had a previous conviction for money laundering. He suspended the last 18 months but made it consecutive to a four year sentence he is currently serving for money laundering.
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