A west Cork sheep farmer told gardaí he was no Pablo Escobar after he was caught growing cannabis plants worth more than €100,000 deep in forestry on his remote hillside farm.

Daniel Kelleher (53) from Kilmore, Ballingeary, Co Cork, pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday to 10 different offences including cultivating cannabis at three locations on his hillside farm on dates in September 2023.

Kelleher admitted growing 52 cannabis plants with a street value of €42,400 at Lyrageeha, Ballingeary, growing 42 plants with a street value of €33,600 at Gurtnakilla, Ballingeary and growing 46 plants with a street value of €36,000 at Derryvaleen, Ballingeary.

Det Garda Shannon Ryan of the Cork County Divisional Drugs Unit said gardaí received confidential information regarding Kelleher’s drug-dealing operations in August 2023 and they carried out a number of searches of Kelleher’s property on September 3rd, 4th and 5th, 2023.

Ryan said when they called to Kelleher’s property he wasn’t at home, but when they later brought him to the property they found stashes totalling 339 grammes of cannabis herb worth €6,084 and €25 worth of cannabis resin.

Detectives arrested Kelleher and brought him to Bandon Garda station for questioning.After receiving legal advice, he made admissions and told gardaí where they could find his cannabis-growing operations, said Ryan.

He said Kelleher was cultivating the cannabis in three plantations located on clearings deep within the forestry that were only accessible on foot. The total value of the plants under cultivation was €112,800 while the total value of all drugs seized was €119,609.

Ryan said Kelleher was a 53-year-old single man who had trained as a plasterer and worked in construction for a period but had inherited the small hillside farm from his late uncle and was engaged in part-time sheep farming.

“He was naive in his beliefs about cannabis – he was proud of how he was growing it but to his credit, he has seen the light and realised that it wasn’t a good thing to be doing and the damage that cannabis can do,” said Ryan.

Cross-examined by defence barrister Ben Shorten, Ryan agreed Kelleher had been co-operative at interview and that he may have been influenced in his views about cannabis by some alternative types living in the area to whom he had begun supplying the drug.

Shorten put it to Ryan that Kelleher had told him at interview that “I’m not Pablo Escobar” and Ryan agreed but said that “he wasn’t Robin Hood either” and, while he had given some cannabis free to some users, he had charged others for their deals.

Pleading for leniency, Shorten said Kelleher was working part-time on a Rural Social Scheme with Údarás na Gaeltachta, had no previous convictions, entered a signed plea of guilty at an early stage, and an exceptionally positive probation report put him at a low risk of reoffending.

“He had a misplaced pride in his horticultural skills. He was taken advantage of by people with a more cavalier view of cannabis … I would ask for a fully suspended sentence to allow him to continue work on the Rural Social Scheme and to continue to look after his livestock,” he said.

Judge Sinead Behan accepted Kelleher had “a misplaced pride in his horticultural abilities” but it was a serious offence, especially given the quantities involved and merited a headline sentence of three years. Taking all the mitigating factors into account, she said she would suspend the term in full.