A former airport security worker, whose cousins are ‘heavily involved in organised crime and belong to a well-known crime family in Drogheda’, has been sentenced to one year and nine months in prison after she was caught transporting €380,000 in cash concealed in a hidden compartment in her car.
Sabrina Carolan, 40, claimed she was pressured by one side in the Drogheda drugs feud to collect bags at the Carrickdale Hotel in Ravensdale, Dundalk near the border. After she was arrested she said that she didn’t know what was in the bags. She suspected it might be a small bit of drugs, Dundalk Circuit Court heard.
Carolan, of Rowan Heights, Drogheda, Co Louth, who has no previous convictions, appeared before Dundalk Circuit Court on Wednesday for sentencing after she signed a plea of guilty to one count of money laundering. The court heard that the accused had moved from Drogheda to Cork seven years previously where she worked in security at the airport for two years, and with people with autism for another two years.
Garda Ryan Ward previously told the court he stopped the Toyota Avensis at Junction 9 on the M1 while travelling south on October 16, 2024, as the rear window was heavily tinted and attracted garda attention.
He said Carolan, who was driving the car, was ‘evasive and nervous.’ On searching the car the rear boot space appeared smaller than it should be. A false compartment was found between the rear seats and the boot. Inside was a Minecraft backpack and other bags containing €380,675 in cash.
17/10/24 – Sabrina Carolan (30) with an address at Rowan Heights, Drogheda pictured at Dundalk District Court this morning where she appeared on money laundering charges(Image: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin)
The defendant told investigators that she got a call that morning to pick up bags at the Carrickdale Hotel. CCTV footage showed her car in a carpark there and an exchange taking place.
She said that she didn’t know what was in the bags. She suspected it might be a small bit of drugs. She admitted to gardaí smoking small amounts of “weed” and told them that she and her mother had been under threat. However, Gda Ward said there was no threat to her in the context of the Drogheda feud.
An only child, she returned home to Drogheda from Cork because of her mother’s deteriorating health and she was also caring for her grandmother, the Irish Mirror reports.
The court heard Carolan was pressured to take part in this, and under threat to have the money couriered by her. She got no recompense for it and Judge Dara Hayes noted her financial means didn’t match the cash found.
At a previous hearing, senior defence counsel Roderick O’Hanlon, instructed by solicitor Paddy Goodwin, said that Carolan was shocked at the amount of money in the bags.
She had purchased the car a short time previously and had no part in the adjustments to facilitate the compartment. She knew it was there when the money was put into it.
Defence counsel told the court Carolan’s connection with the unnamed crime gang is that she is ‘related to them but has no association with them.’
“Her cousins are well known to gardai and heavily involved in organised crime, from a well known family in Drogheda, known to the court,” defence counsel Donough McDonough told the court.
The court heard Ms Carolan has not come to adverse garda attention since and was recently employed as a driver, but lost that job in December.
The court also heard she has been using drugs since she was 15 and relied on alcohol but is willing to go into residential treatment. A probation report noted she is at an immediate risk of reoffending due to her drug and alcohol misuse, the court heard.
“It’s clear the money is the proceeds of crime and her role was assisting serious criminality in transporting it in a hidden compartment in the car she purchased,” said Judge Dara Hayes. He sentenced Carolan to three years in prison with the final 15 months suspended to facilitate and encourage her to take up residential treatment and engage with the Probation Services.
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