Self-professed Conor McGregor fan jailed for importing cocaine

By Sonya McLean

A drugs mule who claimed he was visiting Ireland because he was a big fan of Conor McGregor and he liked the look of Irish pubs in the movies has been jailed for importing cocaine.

Anthony Matheus Rosas De Souza (29) also told customs officials when he was stopped at Dublin Airport that he had heard Irish beer was good and that he was planning to meet up with a woman he had connected with on Tinder.

He later admitted that he had been forced to transport the drugs from Brazil because he owed money to a loan shark. His mother was threatened and he was told that if he brought the suitcase into Ireland his debt would be written off.

De Souza, who is originally from the Amazon region of Brazil, has been on remand in custody since his arrest at the airport. He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to importing cocaine at Terminal One, Dublin Airport on November 1, 2024. He has no previous convictions.

Garda Andrew Fay told Simon Donagh BL, prosecuting, that the suitcase was X-rayed after De Souza was spotted acting evasively and suspiciously. Six packages of cocaine, weighing 2.88 kilogrammes and with an estimated street value of €201,600 were found concealed in the lining of the luggage.

Gda Fay agreed with Aisling Ginger-Quinn BL, defending, that her client said he owed money to loan sharks and was approached by others who told him if he did this favour “his debt would be forgiven”.

He was provided with the flight but got no further payment for bringing the drugs to Dublin.

Gda Fay accepted that De Souza was acting as a drugs mule.

Judge Orla Crowe accepted that De Souza was deliberately acting as a drug mule and brought drugs into this country.

She said the courts see “day in and day out, the wreckage, chaos and havoc” caused by the drug trade in this country and noted it was people like De Souza playing a “key component” in the trading of drugs that facilitate this.

She acknowledged that De Souza will be serving a sentence away from his “supportive family” before she set a headline sentence of four years and six months.

Judge Crowe imposed a sentence of three years which she backdated to when De Souza first went into custody last November.