A Venezuelan drug mule was hospitalised for five weeks after cocaine pellets he swallowed burst in his stomach, a court has heard.
Last May Johan Monzon (35) was on a flight from Spain when he became ill, suffering severe seizures, forcing the flight to divert to Dublin Airport so he could receive urgent medical attention.
Monzon was taken to Beaumont Hospital where it emerged he had swallowed 48 pellets of cocaine and one had ruptured. He suffered medical complications over the following weeks and was only released from hospital on July 1st.
He was then arrested and charged. He later pleaded guilty at Dublin District Court to possession of cocaine for sale or supply at Dublin Airport on May 20th, 2025.
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At a sentence hearing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday a garda witness told the court that the estimated street value of all the drugs ingested by Monzon was €40,768.
After his arrest Monzon was co-operative and made full admissions, the garda testified.
The father-of-three told gardaí that he was struggling financially in his native Venezuela and that an unnamed person approached him and offered him $3,000 to travel to Europe with the drugs.
He said he was sent to Columbia first where he ingested around 40 pellets. He said he was then flown to Brazil where he passed the pellets before “reswallowing” the drugs, the court heard.
He was then flown to France and eventually to Spain where the process of passing and ingesting the drugs was repeated. His flight was not destined to Ireland but was redirected when he became severely unwell.
Seamus Clarke SC, defending, told the court that the money was to be paid on a successful completion of the operation and his client never received any money. He said Monzon was in such desperate financial straits that he was prepared to put his life at risk.
The garda witness agreed that Monzon expressed a wish to return home as soon as possible.
Judge Nolan said that the defendant was unlikely to return here and that his time in prison will be more difficult for him as a foreign national with no family here.
He imposed a two-year prison sentence which he backdated to July 1st last when Monzon was arrested and taken into custody.
