A father and son have gone on trial charged in connection with the seizure of €500,000 worth of herbal cannabis in Co Donegal last year.
Kieran Smyth Senior and Kieran Smyth Junior of 2 Old Grange, Desart Lane, Co Armagh, today pleaded not guilty to six charges against them at Letterkenny Circuit Court.
Opening the case this morning, the prosecution said the drugs were discovered in five cardboard cartons by Customs and Excise officers at Dublin Airport.
The cartons were addressed to a business in Falcarragh, Co Donegal.
They were concealed in plastic bags in a plastic toolbox and they were then repackaged and taken to Donegal where Customs and Excise officers handed them over to gardaí.
Two gardaí were given DHL uniforms and the keys to a DHL van and, posing as DHL staff, they delivered the packages to the father and son who put them into a jeep.
The jeep was kept under garda surveillance and later stopped by gardaí who arrested the men.
47-year-old Kieran Smyth Senior is on disability benefit while his son, 25, is unemployed.
