A 41-year-old Limerickman has been given the longest jail sentence in the district for drugs offences after he was sentenced to 14 years for operating a heroin “factory” at a derelict manor house on the outskirts of the city. John McCarthy, Cliona Park, Moyross, was jailed by Judge Carroll Moran for the possession of €145,000 worth of heroin on October 15, 2010. In a trial that lasted eight days, McCarthy was convicted by unanimous verdict for the possession of the drugs with the intent to sell and supply them to heroin users on the northside of the city.
McCarthy was found guilty of the two counts before the court of the possession and the possession with the intent to sell or supply €145,000 worth of heroin at a bagging operation uncovered by gardai.
Despite fleeing from the scene when gardai swooped after a surveillance operation, McCarthy, a father of five, was later arrested after a search warrant was issued for his home.
It was the State’s case, that McCarthy could be positively identified as the owner of the drugs and the operator of the “bagging factory”.
Garda Emergency Response Unit member, Barry O’Brien, gave evidence that he saw McCarthy at the Four Walls area on the grounds of Castle Park Estate on the Limerick/Clare border when they first entered the bagging area.
Garda O’Brien said that McCarthy was known to him and he identified him immediately. A number of items consistent with the breakdown and distribution of drugs were also found.
In evidence presented during the trial, McCarthy was identified as being the third of three men seen at the derelict manor house, and that when gardai swooped on the area, he shed an item of clothing, fled through undergrowth and dropped a mobile phone that contained his DNA.
The court heard that McCarthy was the “owner of the drugs” and that the other two men arrested at the time of the garda swoop were the “penny boys” and “runners” for McCarthy’s drug dealing enterprise.
The court heard that the two younger men, 20-year-old Adam Llewellyn, from Moyross, and 21-year-old James O’Keefe, Ballynanty, were with McCarthy on the day and have been convicted and sentenced to four years each for their part in the operation. Both had the final year of their sentence suspended.
Gardai described McCarthy as being one of the major figure heads in the drug world for the northside of the city and indeed, the wider region, and this is seen as a major blow to organised crime in Limerick.
During the sentencing hearing, Brian McCartney QC, said that his client “did not live the lavish lifestyle and was no Mr Big,” adding that he had modest means and had nothing more “beyond owning a few ponies”.
The court heard that John McCarthy, his partner and one of their children, suffered from ill-health and that prison life would be very difficult for him. Mr McCartney said that John McCarthy was not as robust as a younger man facing into jail.
McCarthy was remanded in custody following the guilty conviction last month and prosecution for the State, John O’Sullivan, said in objecting to bail, that McCarthy’s status had changed and now as a convicted man, it was the belief of senior gardai involved in the drug squad that he had access to “financial resources to leave the State”.
He added that it was a “strong probability that Mr McCarthy could leave the jurisdiction”.
Given the value of the drugs seized, Mr O’Sullivan added that the convicted drug dealer had “access to vast amounts of money to support himself outside the State”
During sentencing, Det Garda Alan Cullen said that McCarthy was organising the “manipulation and proposed distribution of the drugs”.
The 41-year-old Moyross man had been linked to organised crime in the past and the conviction secured by the gardai is seen as a major one in combating heroin dealing in the city.
While Judge Carroll Moran accepted that McCarthy did not lead the lifestyle of a major drug dealer, he did say that it could be inferred that McCarthy had the financial resources to buy the “large consignment of drugs”.
He added that an aggravating factor, following recent rulings from the court of criminal appeal, was that McCarthy was not feeding a habit or forced to sell to repay debts but in fact, he was acting for his own financial gain.
Judge Carroll Moran said that taking into account that the prescriptive mandatory minimum sentence was one of 10 years, and the fact that the case was contested and that no exceptional circumstances existed for a discount to that sentence, he said he was obliged to hand down a 14 year sentence.
