A MAN on horseback and wearing a balaclava who offered to sell drugs to a garda has been jailed for five years in consecutive sentences by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Anthony Gray had £5,000 worth of cannabis resin when arrested in a field at Glenaulin Park, Ballyfermot, on March 7th, 1996.
A Garda raid of his parents' home at Gurteen Park on July 22nd, 1996, yielded a parcel with 76 canaabis deals worth £1,750 and £400 in cash. He pleaded guilty to having the cannabis for sale or supply on both dates.
Gray (33) and single, told Det Garda Pauline Reid he was forced to hold the parcel by a dealer he owed money to for the drugs seized in March.
He said this "tall man wearing glasses" whose name he did not know approached him in the same field he had been arrested in the previous March and threatened to kill him unless he held the parcel, Gray claimed.
Ms Isobel Kennedy, defending, said Gray smoked cannabis for 22 years but had stopped as a result of his two arrests. He was one of a family of 13. He had a four year old daughter.
Sgt Stephen Nalty told Ms Mary Ellen Ring, prosecuting, that plainclothes gardai saw a man sitting on a horse in the playing fields and when they got closer they noticed he was wearing a balaclava. He inquired if they wanted "to buy hash" but he was told he was under arrest.
Garda Nalty said Gray made a statement admitting he had gone to the field with a large amount of cannabis ready in deals for sale. There was sufficient cannabis to make 4,022 "reefers".
Judge Cyril Kelly said American studies revealed that 29 out of 30 heroin addicts all began by abusing cannabis, which was a threshold drug of introduction to an anti social culture. The age profile of offenders before the courts was becoming lower all the time.
"Many communities are scarred and scourged by drugs. This man was released on bail after his first arrest in March and then caught again. He got his chance and didn't take it. He was unemployed but had £400 cash hidden in his parents' house," Judge Kelly noted.
He imposed a two year sentence on the first charge, followed by a three year term on the second one and refused to set a review date.