A Garda has alleged in court that a 40-year old Dublin man was caught \u2018red handed\u2019 by Garda\u00ed in connection with a seizure of an estimated \u20ac4.2m of suspected cannabis on the outskirts of Shannon, Co Clare last month.<\/p>\n
At Ennis District Court, Garda Eoin McCabe told Judge Adrian Harris that it will be alleged that James Lawlor of Killininny House, Firhouse, Dublin 24 was playing \u201ca key role\u201d in the transportation of the suspected drugs.<\/p>\n
Garda McCabe said that Mr Lawlor was arrested on suspicion of engaging in the sale and supply of cannabis after Gardai stopped the van he was driving on the N19 at Smithstown on the outskirts of Shannon on Tuesday May 26th last.<\/p>\n
Garda McCabe said that during the course of the Garda search of the van, Garda\u00ed recovered a large pallet which contained vacuum packed sealed packs of suspected cannabis.<\/p>\n
Garda McCabe said that the seizure involved 210kgs of suspected cannabis with an estimated street value of \u20ac4.2m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Garda McCabe said that the drugs have been sent away to Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) for analysis.<\/p>\n
Objecting to bail for Mr Lawlor, Garda McCabe alleged that Mr Lawlor \u201cwas essentially caught red handed and was the sole occupant of the van when stopped and searched\u201d.<\/p>\n
Garda McCabe said that evidence in the case will be that Mr Lawlor picked up the pallet from a DHL depot at Smithstown, Shannon.<\/p>\n
Garda McCabe said that there is the possibility of further charges being brought against Mr Lawlor which could result in a substantial sentence if Mr Lawlor is convicted.<\/p>\n
Counsel for Mr Lawlor, Barry O\u2019Farrell BL asked Garda McCabe if he was aware that Mr Lawlor was carrying a card at the time of arrest which confirmed that he has an insertable loop recorder to monitor his heart palpitations.<\/p>\n
Garda McCabe said that he was not aware of this.<\/p>\n
Seeking bail, Mr O\u2019Farrell said that his client does not have any drug related previous convictions and \u201cwould be a good candidate for bail\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Farrell said that much of the garda objection to bail was speculation. Mr Lawlor was brought by prison service staff from Mountjoy prison to attend the bail hearing.<\/p>\n
The seizure of the 210 kgs of suspected cannabis was made as a result of a joint operation conducted by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB), the Clare Divisional Drug Unit and Revenue\u2019s Customs Service.<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Lawlor\u00a0is charged with having\u00a0cannabis at the N19, Smithstown, Shannon\u00a0on May 26th for the purpose of selling or otherwise contrary to\u00a0Section\u00a015\u00a0of the\u00a0Misuse\u00a0of\u00a0Drugs\u00a0Act 1977.<\/p>\n
Mr\u00a0Lawlor\u00a0is also charged with having in his possession cannabis at the same location on the same date contrary to\u00a0Section\u00a03 of the\u00a0Misuse\u00a0of\u00a0Drugs\u00a0Act 1977.<\/p>\n
In court last month, Garda McCabe said that Mr\u00a0Lawlor\u00a0made no reply when cautioned on the Section 3 Misuse of Drugs charge and replied \u2018guilty as charged\u2019 in reply to the Section 15 Misuse of Drugs charge.<\/p>\n
Judge Harris refused bail and further remanded Mr Lawlor in custody to appear again at Ennis District Court on June 24th via video-link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Garda has alleged in court that a 40-year old Dublin man was caught \u2018red handed\u2019 by Garda\u00ed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-497190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497190","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=497190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}