A part-time DJ who was caught with more than €1.4 million of drugs including heroin has been jailed for five years.
Christian Munoz Sanchez (35) told gardaí he would be paid €5,000 for “an easy job”, which included mixing and bagging the drugs, valued at €1.43 million, and transporting it to a third party.
Munoz Sanchez, with an address in Barcelona, Spain, pleaded guilty to possession of drugs for sale or supply last May 2.
On Thursday he was handed a prison sentence of seven years, with the final two years suspended on strict conditions including he leave the jurisdiction following his release from custody and be of good behaviour.
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Det Gda Rioghnach O’Sullivan of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau told Aoife McNickle, prosecuting, how a surveillance operation was put in place on foot of confidential information.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told the operation was focused on Munoz Sanchez and another man, who were in the vicinity of the Clayton Hotel, near Liffey Valley shopping centre.
The second man left and walked towards Lucan. When he was intercepted, a bag he was carrying was searched, but nothing of evidential value was found.
Munoz Sanchez left the hotel in a taxi and gardaí stopped the car on the Coolock slip road. The drugs were found when his suitcase, which was in the boot, was searched.
Nearly 9kg of diamorphine, also known as heroin, and more than 1kg of monoacetylmorphine, with a combined value of €1.43 million, were found in 19 packages within the suitcase.
After his arrest, the defendant was interviewed five times by gardaí.
Munoz Sanchez acknowledged he knew he was carrying drugs and told gardaí he was being paid €5,000 for an “easy job”.
He said he arrived in Ireland on April 24th last year on a ferry in a vehicle with others. He visited bars and restaurants, stayed in an Airbnb before moving to the hotel.
He outlined his role and admitting coming here solely for the purpose of mixing and delivering the drugs to a third party.
Munoz Sanchez told gardaí how a business partner had advised him not to come. He has a wine business in Barcelona and is also a part-time DJ.
He provided his phone to gardaí and messages on the Signal encrypted app showed that another person was directing him and thanked him for doing the job. Munoz Sanchez has no previous convictions here or in Spain.
O’Sullivan agreed with Garrett McCormack, defending, that Munoz Sanchez was very co-operative with the investigation.
McCormack said his instructions were that while his client did not have a drugs debts, he had other debts that he was doing this job to repay.
The witness said Munoz Sanchez confirmed he did not have a drugs debt and was being paid for his role.
McCormack told the court his client incriminated himself, admitting not only to the possession, but also the processing of a large quantity of drugs.
He asked the court to consider departing from the presumptive mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years due to his client’s early guilty plea and co-operation.
McCormack noted the difficulties for foreign nationals serving a sentence in this jurisdiction and he said family members had travelled to support his client.
He said his client was using his time in custody well and intended to return to Spain upon his release.
Several testimonials, other documents and a negative urinalysis were handed to the court.
Imposing sentence, the judge said this was a “very considerable amount of drugs” and said Munoz Sanchez’s actions were “calculated and deliberate”.
She said he had acted “for personal gain” and had come to Ireland for this purpose. She said he had “no other purpose to be here, but to earn easy money”.
The judge said the court accepted he had a debt and wanted to pay it off, noting that “ordinary debt does not carry the same issues as drugs debt”.
“Drugs are a scourge on our society,” the judge said, also saying that heroin in particular has “devastated the city” since the 1970s.
She said organised crime could not function “in this deadly trade” without people like Munoz Sanchez who were not on the radar of gardaí.
The judge said Munoz Sanchez’s guilty plea, previous good character and co-operation with the investigation allowed her to depart from the presumptive mandatory minimum term.
The judge set a headline sentence of 12 years and, having considered the mitigation, reduced this to seven years with the final two years suspended.
The sentence was backdated to last May 2 when he went into custody.
