Teen jailed after being caught with €250,000 of cannabis at Dublin Airport

By Sonya McLean

A teenager who was caught red-handed in Dublin Airport with just over €250,000 worth of vacuum packed cannabis has been jailed for two and half years.

Lucas Matley (19) who is from Manchester, England, later admitted to gardaí that he had travelled to Las Vegas for five days in an arrangement to pick up the suitcase and fly to Ireland with the drugs. He was to be paid £5,000 Stg to transport the 12.8kg of cannabis worth an estimated €257,860.

Matley pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to having the drugs for sale or supply at the airport on March 10, 2024.

Judge Orla Crowe said that Matley had been paid to travel abroad and bring drugs back into this country before she noted the “havoc that is wrought on society in every conceivable way” through the abuse and dealing of drugs.

She acknowledged that Matley had no previous convictions, had co-operated with the garda investigation and is on an enhanced regime in prison since his remand there in March.

Judge Crowe said a headline sentence of four years was warranted before she took mitigating factors into account, including letters from Matley’s former school which described him as “a well-regarded” student.

The judge imposed a sentence of three years with the final six months suspended for a year.

Garda Thomas McLoughlin told Jane Murphy BL, prosecuting, that Matley had just come off a flight from Boston when an anomaly showed up on the x-ray of his luggage. A subsequent search of his suitcase led to the discovery of 28 vacuum packed packages of cannabis.

Matley later told gardaí in interview that he had been paid £5,000 Stg to carry the drugs. He said he regretted his involvement.

Gda McLoughlin agreed with Carl Hanahoe SC, defending, that his client had “made no great effort” to conceal the drugs in his suitcase.

He further accepted that Matley had no previous convictions and had co-operated with the garda investigation.

Mr Hanahoe said his client was “quite clearly a courier” and asked the court to accept that he was otherwise of good character.

Counsel handed in a letter of apology from his client in which he accepted responsibility for his actions.