A 71 year-old man who smuggled cocaine worth nearly €35,000 hidden down his trousers has been given a five-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Thomas Boyd of Wreckin Drive, Old Roan, Liverpool told gardaí he believed the substance was cannabis which he smoked to ease the pain of gout and was carrying the drug from Liverpool to offset a £150 drug debt he owed to a man he refused to name out of fear.
He pleaded guilty to possession of the cocaine at Dublin Port on July 12 th, 2005. Judge Katherine Delahunt suspended three years of the sentence, saying Boyd was a mule and not actively engaged in the drug industry.
Garda Eimer Curran told Desmond Zaidan BL, prosecuting, that Boyd was stopped at the Irish Ferries terminal when he arrived as a foot passenger and attracted the attention of sniffer dogs. Two socks were found down his trousers with a quarter kilo of cocaine covered in curry powder in each one.
Boyd told gardaí he was to meet a man at a hotel and hand over the cocaine. His accommodation for the night was to be covered and his drug debt forgotten.
Erwan Mill-Arden SC, defending, told Judge Delahunt that Boyd had served in the Korean War and had been smoking cannabis for a few years to ease the pain of gout. He was a husband and father of one, with no previous convictions.