The garda informant on trial for importing £1 million worth of drugs from Amsterdam in 1995 told a jury the operation was cleared by his Garda "handler".
Mr Declan Griffin, who was giving evidence on the eighth day of his trial, also told the jury that two years later he was interrogated for 27 hours by the IRA about what had happened at the airport when customs officers detained him with the drugs in December 1995.
Mr Griffin told defence counsel, Mr Brendan Grehan, that he had been sent to Amsterdam with £50,000 to hand over to contacts there, but was asked to bring back the drugs himself. He contacted his "handler", Det Sgt Denis Palmer, who told him to agree to carry back the drugs and assured him he would have a Garda operation in place.
Mr Griffin (29), Bunratty Road, Coolock, has pleaded not guilty to six charges of possession of heroin and ecstasy for sale and supply and importing heroin and ecstasy at Dublin Airport.
He told Mr Grehan that he was abducted by the IRA in 1997 and brought to a house where he was blindfolded, stripped, put in a boiler suit and handcuffed. The men tape-recorded their 27-hour interrogation about the incident at Dublin Airport. He convinced the IRA of his role in the operation and was released 24 hours after the interrogation ended.
Mr Griffin's association with Det Sgt Palmer began when he was arrested in 1993 by gardai from Coolock station. He told Mr Grehan that Det Sgt Palmer released him on £1,000 cash bail and said he would "look after" the charges against him. The charges were then "struck out" in exchange for information on petty crime in Coolock. He said that shortly after his contact with Det Sgt Palmer, he was approached by a person who was involved in drugs and asked to bring money to Amsterdam, for which he would be paid £10,000. Det Sgt Palmer told him "to do it" and to find out about the drug-dealing operation.
He said he was strip-searched at the airport on his return and refused to answer any questions as Det Sgt Palmer had warned him not to say anything.
Mr Griffin said: "I was waiting at Santry Garda station for Det Sgt Palmer to turn up and sort it all out, but when I saw the gates of Mountjoy I realised Dennis was not going to save me now; he's thrown me to the wolves to try and save himself."