A REFORMED drug addict who agreed to transport €1.6 million worth of heroin for €400 because he “needed a few quid” has been sentenced to eight years in prison, with 18 months suspended, by Judge Katherine Delahunt.
John McGrane (28), a father of two, McKee Park, Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin, told gardaí when they stopped the van he was driving: “I don’t even do drugs. It’s not my gear. I got €400 to do the run.”
Garda Ciarán O’Neill told Seán Gillane, prosecuting, that the van McGrane had been driving was under surveillance following an investigation led by the Special Detective Unit in conjunction with Clondalkin Garda station.
He said McGrane later said in interview that he didn’t know who owned the drugs and that he hadn’t touched them or the bag in which they were discovered.
McGrane admitted that he knew it was drugs he was transporting and that he was waiting on a phone call to tell him what to do with them. He described himself as “stupid and naive” and said he had money problems due to “everyday life and his children”.
McGrane pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the heroin for sale or supply at the Outer Ring Road in Clondalkin on October 1st, 2007.
Judge Delahunt accepted that McGrane pleaded guilty when he could have denied knowledge of the drugs.
She said he was acting as a courier but nevertheless he was “an essential cog, a shield against these people and the gardaí”.
“You had an addiction and know the havoc this drug can have on people’s lives,” she said. She suspended the last 18 months of the sentence on condition that he liaise with the probation service upon his release from prison.
Garda O’Neill agreed with Luan Ó Braonáin SC, defending, that McGrane started using heroin at age 13 but he later rehabilitated and was free of drugs on his arrest.
McGrane’s sister Kim said that she supported her brother through his drug treatment and that he had not used drugs for three years before his arrest. She said McGrane was like a father to her own son and she would not let her child spend time with him if she thought he was still taking heroin.
She said her brother knew he had made a “stupid mistake” and he greatly regretted his involvement. Mr Ó Braonáin said there was no excuse for his client’s behaviour and neither he nor McGrane sought make one.