GALWAY BUILDER AND LORRY DRIVER GET SEVEN YEARS EACH FOR DRUGS OFFENCES

Date Published: 02-Apr-2012

A Galway builder and a lorry driver have been jailed for seven years after being caught red-handed with a pallet of cannabis which they had imported from Belgium.46 year old builder Michael Connolly from Doon East, Roscahill and co-accused, lorry driver 51 year old Gerard Mooney from Ballyconlaught, Headford appeared before Galway Circuit Criminal Court in December They pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis resin for sale or supply to another which had an estimated street value of just over 120 thousand euro at the Maldron Hotel, Oranmore on March 22, 2011. The court heard Michael Connolly was 1 million euro in debt to four separate banks at the time of the crime He had got in over his head in building a large gated property for himself and his family in Roscahill and in renovating his in-laws retail businessWhen the property bubble burst he could not sell the house to pay off his debts and it's currently being repossessed by the banks.Detective Garda PJ Noone said Gerard Mooney told him Connolly was a “major operator” in the drugs trade in Galway.He said Mooney had served a three-year prison sentence imposed on him in England in 2009 for possession of €1.7 million of amphetamines for sale or supplyDefence counsel, Feargal Kavanagh said Connolly suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after an attack in a pub in EnglandJudge Raymond Groarke said both men had been motivated by profit and greed and he sentenced both of them to seven years in prison.