A drug dealer who told a woman he would get “junkies” to rape her son if she failed to repay his €157,000 debt during a campaign of intimidation has been jailed for 10 years.
Mark “Fishy” Salmon (33), of Kilbarron Avenue, Kilmore West, Dublin, was sentenced at the Special Criminal Court on Monday.
He pleaded guilty in February to making threats to kill people or damage their property, as well as the possession of cocaine valued at €35,000 and the proceeds of crime.
“The accused preyed on the mother of a person who’d amassed a drug debt and made vicious and ongoing threats to her son[s],” said Judge Patrick McGrath, presiding at the non-jury court, when imposing sentence.
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The woman’s other son, who had no involvement in the drugs trade, was also named in threatening communications sent by Salmon, McGrath noted.
“No doubt the recipient was terrified and deeply concerned for the safety of her two sons,” he added.
The woman left her home for a time out of concern for her safety and that of her family – while her elder son left the country.
The judge said threats were made “to strike terror in the recipients and to exert maximum pressure, exploiting her love for her son and her fear of what might happen to him if she did not comply”.
He said Salmon’s criminal culpability was heightened by the fact he ranked “above those at the lowest end of the supply chain” and had “profited from his criminal activities”.
However, the court noted his early guilty plea, the absence of “any relevant previous offending” and “ongoing efforts at rehabilitation” in prison, where Salmon had gained enhanced prisoner status.
The headline sentences would have extended to 16 years for the offending, but were reduced to four years for the drug offence, four years for the threats and two years for the possession of the proceeds of crime.
At a previous sentencing hearing, Det Sgt Domhnall O’Connell told prosecution counsel Fiona Murphy that Salmon used the threat of violence as part of an effort to intimidate people he claimed owed him money.
McGrath ordered that the victims not be identified after hearing they remain in fear for their safety.
O’Connell said gardaí on March 26th, 2024, stopped a man at a checkpoint in Carrick-on-Shannon. When they searched his car, they found a brown envelope containing cocaine valued at €35,280.
When gardaí analysed mobile phones found during the same search, they discovered messages and voice notes from Salmon giving instructions on where to deliver the drugs.
The messages also stated that the person who had been driving the car owed €88,600 and that Salmon would reduce his debt by €600 for delivering this consignment.
The man’s girlfriend’s phone also revealed demands by Salmon for payment and threats to the man’s life and his parents’ home.
The front windows of the man’s father’s home were smashed around this time and his car was damaged. The detective said gardaí believe Salmon organised the attack but he was not one of the three men captured by CCTV carrying it out.
The court heard that another young man told his mother in December 2023 that he owed money to Salmon and was doing jobs to pay off the debt.
He told his mother Salmon wanted to speak to her and made arrangements for them to meet the following month at a coffee shop in the Pavilions shopping centre in Swords.
During the 45-minute meeting, Salmon said her son owed €157,000 and he would give her one month to find the money or her son would be shot.
He called her one week later but she reminded him he had given her a month to come up with the money. Shortly after that call, Salmon phoned her again and said he would get “junkies to rape” her son. He also threatened to drive over him and put a bullet in his head.
“Sort it out, or he’s dead ... Youse are lucky he’s still walking, remember that,” Salmon wrote in one text to the woman.
He later sent her a text message saying: “You think 157k is going to disappear ... sort it out or he’s dead” and “If you’re worried about your son hanging from a rope, get a move on.”
He further directly threatened her son in a text saying: “I am going to murder you. I am going to get two junkies to tie you down and rape you.”
There was one further meeting in which the victim told Salmon it would not be possible to get that kind of money. Her son fled to England but she remained in fear for herself and the rest of her family.
The victim described Salmon as being “like a demon”. She said she is not a soft woman but the accused caused her “pure fear” and left her “frightened to bits”.
During subsequent searches of homes linked to Salmon, gardaí seized designer watches by Armani, Michael Kors, Louis Vuitton, Rolex and Tag. A forensic analysis of Salmon’s bank accounts and various expenses showed he had unexplained income of €24,000 in 2022 and some €60,000 in 2023.
His previous convictions are all for road traffic matters and were dealt with at the District Court.
The detective said the mother of the man stopped at the checkpoint suffered a financial loss of €29,500 from handing over €7,000 to pay part of the drug debt and having been forced to stop working for six months to take care of her family.
In a statement read out by the detective, she said she had suffered a “high degree of anxiety and stress” and remains in fear.
The second victim said she had lost €3,500 and has suffered depression, anxiety, loneliness and isolation as a result of the episode. Her son also had to flee the country and she is afraid to visit him in case she is followed.
Dominic McGinn, counsel for Salmon, submitted that his client is committed to moving away from criminality and wants to be a role model for his two daughters.
He said the value of the drugs involved, at some €35,000, was at the lower end given that the courts regularly deal with hauls worth millions.
Salmon pleaded guilty in February to engaging in acquiring and/or possessing property that was the proceeds of criminal conduct to the value of €24,257.44 between January 1st, 2022, and December 31st, 2022, and property that was the proceeds of criminal conduct to the value of €60,565.41 between January 1st, 2023, and December 31st, 2023, while knowing or believing or being reckless as to whether the property was the proceeds of criminal conduct.
He further admitted making a threat to the mother that he would kill or cause serious harm to her son on a date unknown between January 1st, 2024, and May 20th, 2024.
Salmon also pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing cocaine worth more than €13,000 for the purpose of unlawfully selling or otherwise supplying the drugs to another on March 26th, 2024, at or near Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim.
He further pleaded guilty to transporting the drugs that were seized at Carrick-on-Shannon, to making threats to the girlfriend of the person transporting the drugs and to criminal damage of the man’s parents’ home in Dublin 13.
Orders were granted to the State for the forfeiture of the cash and the contents of Salmon’s bank accounts, while the court also directed the destruction of the drugs seized in the course of the investigation.
