A TALLAGHT man who admitted to gardai he had prepared four tons of angel dust powder from June to September 1990 and helped distribute it was imprisoned for eight months and fined £1,000 yesterday at Rathfarnham District Court.
Declan Gernon (41), Tymonville Avenue, Tallaght, said he had been working for another man who had asked him to rent premises and mix the chemicals for dispatch.
When his home was searched on an unrelated matter in March 1992, clenbuterol worth £232,114 was found there, the court was told when he pleaded guilty before Judge Sean Delap to possession of the drug.
Del Sgt Colm Featherstone, Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, said Gernon made a statement to him on March 27th, 1992, which was read in court. However, Judge Delap instructed the media not to use the names of any other person from it.
In it, Gernon said he had rented a premises at Terenure Road West, Dublin for £270 a month at the request of another man who paid the rent and paid him £400 per ton for mixing the chemicals.
"I mixed four tons of this product from June 1990 to September 1991. About 3.75 tons were dispatched from the premises by various means such as personal collection by the man in his own car or by van men from various companies," said the statement.
He said he made about three deliveries to the car park of the Ambassador Hotel, Kildare, where the deliveries were passed from one car boot to the other.
One of the deliveries he made to the hotel was to a man, aged 36-40, driving a wine coloured Mercedes with a Cork registration.
He made two deliveries to this man in September 1991 of about five boxes each time. He had also handed over five boxes to a person in an old Fiat 127 or Fiesta whose name he did not know. The car was driven by a young woman and the man was about 65.
In July or August 1991 he collected 40 cases of a powdery substance similar to what had been found in his home and he delivered some of this to an address in Trim, Co Meath.
The person in Trim took a total of 35 boxes of different substances and he had also made a delivery of five boxes to a premises in Tarbert, Co Kerry, and a similar delivery a month later in March 1991.
Sgt Featherstone said the defendant had one previous conviction for conspiracy to defraud in February 1991 for which he received 40 hours community service.
As a result of his statement further substantial seizures were made over that weekend.
A Department of Agriculture senior veterinary inspector, Mr Pat Brangan, explained how clenbuterol worked when administered to an animal, yielding higher value on the carcass.
The meat from clenbuterol treated animals was not of good quality and when such meat was sold internationally it had a deleterious effect on the national economy and sometimes it took some time for this information to feed back to Ireland.
Mr Declan Holmes, of the Department's Special Investigation Unit, said the total haul was worth £232,114. Part of the haul was a substances called QUS which he believed was illegally imported from Argentina.
He said this contained clenbuterol at a higher level than normal. Some 77 sachets of white powder contained clenbuterol at a significantly higher dose rate than normal.
Imposing sentence, Judge Delap said in his eyes angel dust use was a sabotage on a well respected national business, a business which was bound to be tainted for years to come.
"I am fascinated by the fact that someone living in Tallaght who probably does not know anything about cows, bullocks or heifers can act as a distributor for this stuff" he said.
"I am saddened by the fact that there are quick buck merchants down the country who are prepared to deal with someone of that ilk, be it a Dublin Jackeen or someone involved in farming," he said.
He imposed an eight month sentence on Gernon and fined him £1,000 and fixed bail in the event of an appeal.
Asked by defending solicitor if he would consider changing imprisonment for community service, the judge said this was the last thing on his mind.
"It saddens one as an Irishman to consider the implications of all this for our country."
A second defendant, Mr Dennis Ward, with an address in Monkstown, had his case adjourned until May after the court heard that he had sought a judicial review of proceedings.