Man linked to drug haul through fingerprints jailed for five years

A man whose fingerprints linked him to a storage container with nearly half a million euro worth of cannabis inside has been jailed for five years.

Tomasz Lorenc (32), with an address at The Hill, Clon Brugh, Aikens Village, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of possessing cannabis for sale or supply on August 24th, 2018.

A total of €467,000 worth of cannabis was found inside a rented 40ft metal storage container at Meadowfield Storage in Saggart after gardaí obtained a search warrant, Garda Josh Doran told Lorenc’s sentence hearing on Tuesday.

The unit was rented under a name that gardaí­ were unable to find any record of which later turned out to be an alias of Lorenc’s, Karl Finnegan BL, prosecuting, told the court.

Lorenc was tracked down after his fingerprints matched those taken from the drugs.

The Polish national has been living in the State since about 2014 and used an alias because he is wanted in Poland for an assault charge and there is an outstanding European Arrest Warrant for him, the court heard.

Lorenc has one previous conviction in the UK for drug importation and will be returned to Poland once he has served his sentence.

Right to silence

After his arrest, Lorenc exercised his right to silence, so little is known about how or why he got involved in the drugs operation, Lorcan Staines SC, defending, told the court.

A psychologist’s report before the court said Lorenc suffered from addiction, depression and other mental health issues. He told the psychologist that he agreed to hold the drugs after he built up a drug debt.

Judge Melanie Greally said she believed the offence fell within the middle range of offending. She handed down a sentence of five years and backdated it to when Lorenc went into custody in September of last year.