A 31-year-old man, who along with his family was the victim of a so-called tiger kidnapping when he was a 10-year-old child, has been jailed for three years for drugs offences.
Jason Smith from Beechdale Lawn, Ballycullen in Dublin, agreed to pick up almost €150,000 worth of drugs from a van because he had run up a drug debt.
He was addicted to Xanax at the time.
He was caught on 1 June 2023 after gardaí received a tip-off about a van parked up for a number of weeks in Dundrum.
It was put under surveillance and Smith was seen pulling up beside the van and removing an item from it before placing it in his own car.
Gardaí stopped him a few moments later and Garda Kevin Keogh described him as "visibly nervous".
The car was searched and €2,304 worth of cannabis jellies and cannabis was found.
Gardaí then searched the van and found it had a hidden compartment in which further vacuum packed bags of cocaine were discovered.
The total value of the drugs seized was €143,697, which included cocaine valued at €21,612 and the cannabis valued at €119,219.
Smith claimed that he did not know about the drugs and that his role was to go to the van, remove items from it and hand these over along with the key to the van.
Gardaí were unable to identify the owner of the van as it had been falsely registered.
Judge Martin Nolan accepted that others took advantage of Smith’s drug debt and acknowledged that he was a good man in relation to his family and that his childhood had not been without its challenges.
His parents had separated and he had looked after his siblings.
He was jailed for three years today at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
