{"id":365817,"date":"2026-03-26T07:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/365817\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T07:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:36:07","slug":"gardai-found-e40000-worth-of-drugs-in-limerick-mans-council-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/365817\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed found \u20ac40,000 worth of drugs in Limerick man\u2019s council house"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A MAN who was found with \u20ac40,000 worth of drugs and three shotgun cartridges in his home said he was holding materials to clear his drug debt.<\/p>\n<p>Limerick Circuit Court heard Damien Joyce, 26, had his home at Scanlon Park, Castleconnell, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.limerickleader.ie\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Limerick<\/a> searched by garda\u00ed on February 2, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Barrister John O\u2019Sullivan said in his summation of the prosecution\u2019s evidence that the drugs were found in a shoe box in Mr Joyce\u2019s bedroom.<\/p>\n<p>Two different weighing scales were also found in the room, as well as three shotgun cartridges.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.limerickleader.ie\/news\/environment\/2045249\/sickening-cruelty-to-horses-prompts-fresh-call-for-a-dedicated-ispca-inspector-for-limerick.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Sickening&#8221; cruelty to horses prompts fresh call for a dedicated ISPCA inspector for Limerick<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Director of Public Prosecutions charged Mr Joyce with permitting his land to be used for the sale and supply of controlled drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Joyce told garda\u00ed that he was \u201cforced to mind it\u201d, and that he \u201cowed money, I had no choice\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Joyce admitted that he had been storing the drugs for five to six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The man said he was doing so to clear his drug debt &#8211; and that he wasn\u2019t selling the drugs.<\/p>\n<p>The court heard that Mr Joyce has a history of employment, and previously had a job removing knotweed. The man\u2019s current employer &#8211; who gave him a reference in court &#8211; has a car business.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Joyce\u2019s sister also submitted a short email alluding to the family\u2019s background on the man\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Joyce lived with his mother in a council house at the time of the offence, the court heard.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Colin Daly said that Mr Joyce \u201cwas operating under a fear of what would happen to him if he did not comply\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The court heard that Mr Joyce has 23 previous convictions, with three of those for simple possession of drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Colin Daly adjourned the case to a date in October for Mr Joyce to attend a drug course and show the court his employment record.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do want to allow Mr Joyce to put his best foot forward\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Daly said: \u201cIf he can satisfy me in this regard I will suspend the sentence in its entirety for four years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>-Funded by the Court Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A MAN who was found with \u20ac40,000 worth of drugs and three shotgun cartridges in his home said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,18997,61,60,67397,44,43],"class_list":["post-365817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-castleconnell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick-circuit-court","tag-limerick-city","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365817","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=365817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}