An unemployed woman who imported cocaine valued at €147,000 for a €700 fee to help her sick son has been given a seven-year jail term by Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Iwona Gabrynowicz (29), of Brenna, Lipowska, Poland, had two slabs of cocaine concealed in her bag when stopped at Dublin airport by Customs and Excise officer Sinead Hartnett.
Sgt Martin Halpin told Colm Ó Briain BL, prosecuting, that when questioned by Ms Hartnett on her arrival from Brussels on April 26th last year, Gabrynowicz did not know anyone in Ireland and did not know where she was staying. Gabrynowicz said her flight had been paid for by someone who also gave her the case in which the cocaine was found. She told gardaí her parents were very poor small farmers and that she had been married while in university but her marriage broke down after her son was born.
Sgt Halpin said Gabrynowicz revealed that while speaking on her mobile phone at her local rail station to her mother who was looking after her sick son, she was approached by a young woman who sympathised with her difficulties.
This woman told her there was a job she could do in Holland for a €700 fee and Gabrynowicz understood she would have to carry money somewhere.
Sgt Halpin said she went to Amsterdam where her hotel bill was paid and she was then given a train ticket to Brussels and told to book into a hotel, whose details she had to send to someone in Holland.
Gabrynowicz knew she was involved in something illicit but told gardaí she believed it was money she would be carrying and she was scared that trained airport dogs would sniff it.
Sgt Halpin told Mr Ó Briain he accepted her story as it was normal for people like her in straitened circumstances to be targeted as she was.
Niall Durnin SC, defending, submitted that the court could consider a sentence of less than 10 years for Gabrynowicz because of all the circumstances surrounding her case.
He said her son had been brought to Ireland twice by her husband's family to see her since she went into custody.
Mr Durnin said she has attended educational courses in custody and the governor had sent a letter indicating she was using her time as best she can.
Judge Desmond Hogan said she was convicted under section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act which carried a possible 10 years mandatory sentence and up to life imprisonment but the court was allowed to take exceptions into consideration permitting a less than 10 years sentence.
Judge Hogan said she had pleaded guilty at an early stage and had been duped into doing this crime by persons unknown who took advantage of her sad domestic situation, which was poverty and a three-year-old child who was ill.
He said that the other side of the coin was that the court must have regard to the fact that "while the crime was motivated by poverty, she had received the benefit of third-level education and should have known better to what she was becoming involved in".
Judge Hogan said the court also had to have regard to the fact that the drug was cocaine and to its value.