Van driver jailed after being caught with €840,000 of cannabis

By Eimear Dodd

A man has been jailed for five years and one month after €840,000 of cannabis was found in the van he was driving.

Andrew Byrne (45) with addresses in Fleurville Road, Blackrock, Co. Dublin and Putland Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of drugs for sale or supply.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that customs intercepted a package containing 42kg of cannabis, valued at €840,000, concealed in Tupperware.

A controlled delivery of the package was arranged to a warehouse in Ballycoolin. Once it was delivered, Gardaí kept the warehouse under surveillance.

A white van driven by Byrne arrived sometime later and the package was loaded into it. The van was followed and Gardaí stopped Byrne on the N7 near Clondalkin on May 7, 2024. When the van was searched, the drugs which had been delivered to the warehouse were found inside.

When interviewed, Byrne admitted his role was as a driver and said he was told where to go.  He said he didn’t know exactly what was in the package, but suspected it was something illegal. He said he was offered this work to clear a legitimate debt. 

A number of follow up searches were carried out, but nothing of evidential value was found.

Byrne has 17 previous convictions, all at the District Court, including for assault and public order offences.

In a separate incident, Gardaí stopped Byrne at a checkpoint in Cherrywood on February 3, 2023.

Byrne appeared nervous and Gardaí decided to carry out a search. They found 8g of cocaine, worth €620, on Byrne and other drugs paraphernalia when his home was later searched.

Byrne made admissions when interviewed. He was on bail for this offence when he was stopped in relation to the cannabis, the court was told.

An investigating Garda agreed with Dean Kelly SC, defending, that Byrne wasn’t the owner of cannabis and was paid by others to move them.

It was further accepted that while Byrne had legitimate debts, the background to the offending was his use of cocaine and bereavements which occurred in advance of this offending.

The Garda also agreed that Byrne had no trappings of wealth and made admissions when interviewed.

Mr Kelly said his client began drinking and taking drugs as a young adult, but his cocaine use increased in recent years.

Byrne worked as a taxi driver and incurred debt keeping his vehicle on the road. Mr Kelly said these debts were “small and legitimate” but a “constant weight around his neck” caused by Byrne’s use of cocaine.

Mr Kelly said his client made a “spectacularly bad decision” which is “not reflective of an otherwise productive life”.

Byrne spent seven months in custody following his arrest and resolved to become drug-free, counsel said. He is now in counselling and remains drug-free.

Judge Martin Nolan said that Byrne had made a “huge misjudgement” in relation to the cannabis and “was in court to pay the price”.

Having considered the mitigation, Judge Nolan handed Byrne a one-year sentence for possession of the cocaine.

He said he would give Byrne credit for the time already spent in custody and imposed a consecutive sentence of four years and one month on the charge of possessing the cannabis.