A sentencing judge said that the rural tradition of the \u2018honesty box\u2019 was subverted by a man who left cannabis in jam jars for customers at 40 locations throughout West Cork. Now the man has been remanded in custody for sentencing for drug dealing.<\/p>\n
Detective Garda Shannon Ryan testified that drugs-unit garda\u00ed became aware that cannabis was being stored in a wooded area off a remote country road near Timoleague, Co Cork.<\/p>\n
Gideon Cullum, 36, of Fourcuil, Clonakilty, Co Cork, was identified as the suspect. Surveillance was set up in the area at 6pm on September 16, 2024.<\/p>\n
Cullum was seen entering the wooded area at Ballinoroher, Timoleague, where the stash of cannabis was concealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe emerged with a rucksack and placed something from the rucksack at three different field gates,\u201d Det Gda Ryan said.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe was stopped by garda\u00ed. Initially, he tried to make his escape on foot, but he was caught.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cHe opened the rucksack and it contained 14 packages of cannabis, weighing half a kilo. He was accompanied back to the three locations by the gates, and packages were recovered at each one.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he had a quantity of cannabis, which was buried in an ammunition box in the wood. He was arrested for having cannabis for sale or supply.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring interview, he admitted he had been selling since October 2020, during the second covid lockdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he received a kilo that day for over \u20ac8,000. He had 10 customers, and he placed cannabis on that road, and he sold about four kilos of cannabis a year.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe kilo was examined by Forensic Science Ireland and it had a value just under \u20ac20,000.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cHis system was a well-organised operation. He used a different name online. There was a phone number and people would order by WhatsApp. They would receive a location PIN and would go to that rural location. The drugs would be in a lunchbox or a glass jar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person would take the cannabis and leave the cash. There was no interaction: It was click and go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Sinead Behan said it was like an honesty box. The detective said the accused told them he had \u201c40 locations right across West Cork\u201d.<\/p>\n
Defence barrister Ben Shorten said: \u201cHe had certain addiction issues, prior to his arrest in September last year. He has given up drink and drugs, and he has been clear on voluntary urinalysis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Behan said: \u201cI am concerned about the organised nature of this: 40 different locations; four kilos was the admission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was anonymous, sophisticated, and used country locations over a prolonged period of time.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe was using the honesty box, which is part of a beautiful culture in West Cork that he has developed, and was using for drugs.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI do have an unease about the sophistication of this operation and the general situation giving rise to this over a prolonged period.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge adjourned sentencing until December 15, but remanded him in custody until that date. A probation report was requested by Mr Shorten.<\/p>\n
Cullum signed a plea of guilty to an offence from September 16, 2024, at Ballinoroher, Timoleague, where he had cannabis for sale or supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sentencing judge said that the rural tradition of the \u2018honesty box\u2019 was subverted by a man who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,79,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-169414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-court","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}