TWO MEN HAVE been charged over a \u20ac1.2 million cannabis seizure in Dublin after garda\u00ed responded to reports of a burglary and a Chinese national fleeing with his hands \u201ccable-tied behind his back\u201d.<\/p>\n
Aaron Mulhall (31) and Gary Hanley (37) were charged with unlawful possession of drugs for sale or supply on 13 August at Blackhall Square.<\/p>\n
They faced separate hearings at Dublin District Court today.<\/p>\n
Hanley, who \u201cmade no reply\u201d when charged, deferred his bail application and was remanded in custody to appear again on Thursday. He is to face garda objections to being released.<\/p>\n
Mulhall, a father of one, was remanded in custody pending lodgement of \u20ac750 from him and \u20ac10,000 from an independent surety.<\/p>\n
Detective Garda Peter Guyett told Judge \u00c1ine Clancy that unemployed Mulhall was charged after garda\u00ed received reports of three males wearing balaclavas, and armed with a hammer, breaking into an apartment at Blackhall Square, in Dublin 7.<\/p>\n
The court heard that when they arrived at the scene, they observed three males exiting the apartment, two of them with suitcases.<\/p>\n
Mulhall was arrested in the hall; another man was stopped a short distance away, and the third escaped.<\/p>\n
It was alleged the apartment door had been forced open, and the occupants, a male and a female, both Chinese nationals, had also fled the scene.<\/p>\n
The Chinese man was observed by a neighbour with his hands tied together with cable ties behind his back moments before garda\u00ed arrived. It was also on CCTV, court heard.<\/p>\n
The suitcases were found to contain 90 individual packages of cannabis.<\/p>\n
The court said a hidden camera was found on top of one of the suitcases.<\/p>\n
It had been removed after being fitted behind a fire safety sign in the hallway outside the apartment the previous night.<\/p>\n
It was alleged Mulhall arrived with two other males and put a balaclava over his face, which the defence argued was a snood.<\/p>\n
The court heard Mulhall was found allegedly in possession of approximately \u20ac10,000, three mobile phones and a passport belonging to a named Chinese national who garda\u00ed believed was the male resident of the apartment.<\/p>\n
The detective maintained that the accused was caught red-handed. The officer also raised concerns for the safety and welfare of witnesses.<\/p>\n
Paddy Flynn BL, defending, said Mulhall maintains he did not have the suitcase and was unaware of its contents.<\/p>\n
Cross-examined by the barrister, the detective conceded that there was no evidence of his client installing the camera the night beforehand.<\/p>\n
The court heard he had eye-related health problems, and would abide by conditions set down by the court.<\/p>\n
Judge Clancy set the independent surety at \u20ac25,000, of which \u20ac10,000 must be handed over in court.<\/p>\n
On taking up bail, he must obey conditions: no contact with witnesses or any co-accused, surrender his passport and not apply for a replacement, obey a curfew at his address and sign on daily at his local garda station.<\/p>\n
He will appear again next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TWO MEN HAVE been charged over a \u20ac1.2 million cannabis seizure in Dublin after garda\u00ed responded to reports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1457,54,615,8411,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-593505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-court","tag-courts","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-district-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593505","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=593505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}