Man jailed after gardai found over €680,000 worth of illegal drugs

By  Eimear Dodd

A man has been jailed for four years and five months after gardai found over €680,000 worth of illegal drugs in a storage unit. 

Valdas Sakinis (40) pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis and zopiclone tablets for sale or supply on June 29, 2024 at Mount Seskin Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that gardai on patrol noticed Sakinis standing at a storage unit wearing latex gloves.

The investigating garda told Edward Doocey BL, prosecuting, that Sakinis seemed nervous when he spoke to him.

€200 of cannabis, which Sakinis later said was for personal use, was found on the defendant when he was searched. Gardai found cling film, a small amount of ketamine in a hidden compartment and a key to a storage unit when they searched the van.

33.4kg of cannabis, valued at €668,000, and €12,600 worth of zipiclone tablets were found when the storage unit was later searched.

Sakinis, of no fixed abode, told gardai he lived in Lithuania, but comes back and forth to Ireland. He refused to say who owned the key to the storage unit.

He has three previous convictions for theft, criminal damage and trespass dating back to 2011.

The garda agreed with Michael Hourigan SC, defending, that his client entered an early guilty plea,  provided access to his phone, has a work history in Ireland and is not a person of assets.

It was further accepted that Sakinis drew attention to himself, was a “gilly” and had run up large gambling debts.

Mr Hourigan submitted to the court his client is among the “class of person who are induced but are utterly dispensable” to those who organise this type of criminal activity.

He said his client was “a person operating with any degree of confidence or comfort” in this enterprise and a “gilly” who knows he is facing a prison sentence for this serious offending.

Counsel asked the court to take into account his client’s early guilty plea, co-operation and a letter from Sakinis’s priest in Lithuania.

Judge Martin Nolan said the court accepted Sakinis was at “the lower to middle end, though probably lower” of this offending, and not the owner of the drugs.

He noted the mitigation and that time in custody can be more challenging for foreign nationals.