By Isabel Hayes
A couple who were caught by gardai with €380,000 in cash in the back of their car have been jailed for money laundering.
Ihor Samotos (32) was witnessed by surveillance gardaí receiving a box full of cash from a third party – who is still before the courts – at a carpark in Santry last October. His partner, Sabina Kolukhonova (34) was a passenger in the car.
The court heard Samotos, a Ukrainian national living in Leitrim, had limited work opportunities and went online looking for ways to make more money.
He got involved in a money laundering operation for an organised criminal gang and then did not feel able to back out of it, defence counsel Fiona Murphy SC, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Detective Garda Ciaran O’Neill told Sarah Connolly BL, prosecuting, that gardaí were tipped off to a cash handover taking place in the Santry Retail Park. On the day in question, Samotos was witnessed meeting a third party in the car park, where he completed a two-step verification process.
The court heard this involved Samotos sending a photo of his trousers and shoes to the criminal gang, along with a photo of a €5 note with the serial number clearly visible.
When the other man arrived at the scene, he verified Samotos was wearing the same trousers and runners. Samotos also handed him the fiver to check the serial number.
After the box of cash was handed over from the other man to Samotos, gardaí swooped and arrested both parties. A total of €383,090 in cash was recovered. Kolukhonova was a passenger in Samotos’s car at the time, and the prosecution’s case was that she assisted him in the money laundering.
Both Samotos, of Breandrum, Mohill, Co Leitrim and Kolukhonova, of Macken Lane, Leitrim village, pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering at Gulliver’s Retail Park, Santry on October 14, 2025. They have no previous convictions in this jurisdiction or in Ukraine.
The court heard they came to Ireland separately after war broke out in Ukraine and started a relationship. Samotos was working for a car wash but was not getting enough hours to make a living, defence counsel said. Kolukhonova has a young child.
The other man who was arrested remains before the courts.
Sentencing them, Judge Martin Nolan accepted that “but for (Samotos’s) precarious situation, he may not have become involved in this criminal behaviour”. But he noted Samotos had made the choice to do so and that a serious amount of money was involved in the offending.
He set a headline sentence of nine and a half years, which he reduced to five and a half years, taking mitigating factors into account, including his early guilty plea, admissions, co-operation and his lack of previous convictions.
Sentencing Kolukhonova, he noted her involvement was to a much lesser extent in that she was present during the handover of the cash, was aware of what was happening and was helping Samotos. He sentenced her to 20 months in prison.
The judge backdated both sentences to the date Samotos and Kolukhonova were taken into custody last October.