A judge has struck out a narcotics charge against a 25-year old college student who imported more than €10,000 of MDMA through the post.
The student decided to embark on the illegal activity after watching a tutorial on YouTube on sourcing illegal drugs via the darkweb.
At Ennis District Court Judge Patrick Durcan struck out the charge after Jack McInerney of Dough, Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, Clare, paid €5,000 to the Court Discretionary Fund.
“You made a stupid decision and the only redeemable factor . . . was the decision was so stupid, really stupid,” said the judge to Mr McInerney, while adding that he had decided to punish him in the pocket. He said the €5,000 will be applied to a charitable cause.
The judge warned Mr McInerney not to “ever come back before me again”. He said that as the charge is being struck out Mr McInerney will not have record.
At a previous court hearing Sgt Aiden Lonergan said Mr McInerney got involved in drugs “after he heard a few lads in college talking about it. And he watched a tutorial video on YouTube on how buy drugs on the darkweb and decided that he would try it and make a bit of money.”
In the post
Sgt Lonergan said Mr McInerney had spent €4,000 on purchasing the drugs and had used an address of a friend of a friend as the postal destination. The officer added that two separate packages containing 175g of MDMA were detected.
Mr McInerney had pleaded guilty to possession with intent to sell or supply in April 2018.
Previously, the judge said he would strike out the charge when the €5,000 is paid as he accepted that Mr McInerney is not a criminal and that his actions were “not part of a criminal conspiracy to import drugs”.
