A pilot of a light aircraft has been found guilty for his role in the importation of €8.4 million worth of cocaine into the midlands three years ago.
Michal Luczak, 44, formerly of Primrose Avenue, Jigginstown, Naas, Co Kildare and now residing in Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to unlawful possession of cocaine, possessing it for the purpose of sale or supply, and the possession and importation of drugs worth €13,000 or more at Abbeyshrule Aerodrome, Co Longford, on 4 August 2022.
The trial before a jury of four women and eight men at Mullingar Circuit Court lasted three weeks and heard from more than 50 witnesses.
Luczak, a Polish national and father of two, was the pilot of a Cessna 182, a small four-seater light aircraft.
The court heard the aircraft was part-owned by eight equal shareholders, including Luczak.
The jury heard how the Polish pilot departed from Abbeyshrule Aerodrome in Co Longford, a type two customs airport for passengers and baggage only, on August 3, 2022, in the Cessna 182-S aircraft.
Luczak travelled with his friend Timothy Gilchrist, 57, who told the jury, during the trial, that he had been jailed for eleven years for his role in collecting the drugs.
Evidence was given that the two men flew to Le Touquet, a customs airport in northern France, and stayed overnight in a hotel before flying to Dieppe, a smaller airport.
The jury heard that at Dieppe airport, five large sports bags and one large suitcase were loaded on the plane.
The trial heard the plane then returned directly to Abbeyshrule Aerodrome in Co Longford, landing in the early evening of 4 August.
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Garda surveillance
On that day, garda surveillance was put in place, and the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB), supported by other units, were monitoring the aircraft.
When the plane landed, the six bags were loaded into an Alfa Romeo owned by Mr Gilchrist, who was later intercepted and arrested by gardaí at Lough Owel, Co Westmeath.
The car was searched, and the six bags were each found to contain 20 blocks, each wrapped in plastic with green tape and a picture of a seahorse on them.
Each of the 120 blocks was found to contain approximately one kilogram of cocaine, totalling 120kg, with a market value of €8.4 million.
Luczak had left the aerodrome in a black Mercedes and was stopped at Collinstown, Co Westmeath, before being taken to Ashbourne Garda Station for an interview.
During the trial, Tom Gilchrist, with an address at Mavis Bank, Newrath, Co Kilkenny, told the jury that Luczak did not know there were drugs in the bags that were loaded on the plane in France.
He said he was interested in flying and that he had been introduced to Luczak by a friend two or three years earlier, and they had taken trips together to England, Belgium, and France, with him paying for the fuel.
He said he did not want to tell Luczak he was carrying anything suspicious because "he would have gone straight to the authorities".
He also said he was sick at the time and collected the bags from a group of angry men who had arrived at Dieppe Airport.
He gave evidence that he loaded the plane when the defendant was not around and felt dreadful about it, later telling the accused the bags contained books and research papers belonging to his brother.
He also stated that he alone unloaded the bags at Abbeyshrule and placed them in his car.
Counsel for the State Cathal Ó Braonáin BL said Michal Luczak was "key to the success" of the operation, and would have been a "wildcard" risk to a criminal organisation if he had not known what the four-seater aircraft was carrying.
He was "irreplaceable" and a "valuable asset" in this venture, the jury heard.
He told the jury the pilot did not record in the flight from Dieppe in his log and that he was fully aware of the regulations.
He told them that if his version was correct, why had he not helped his ill friend Gilchrist carry the heavy bags.
The prosecutor also referred to evidence that one of the people on the ground at the aerodrome, who had been in contact with Gilchrist, also had the defendant's phone number.
However, Luczak’s defence senior counsel John Shortt argued that there was not a jot of evidence to say his client knew what was on the plane, and he urged the jury not to make a gigantic leap into the unknown or convict Mr Luczak.
Mr Shortt told the jury: "There is not a jot – not a sausage – of evidence that Michal Luczak was in possession of drugs."
"There’s no evidence he’s guilty of anything other than obliging a friend, as we’ve all done. There’s no evidence to suggest anything other than a normal relationship," he said.
"The only evidence of what took place in France came from Timothy Gilchrist, and he never varied in his evidence that Mr Luczak didn’t know what was going on," he said.
However, the jury did not accept this and after three hours and sixteen minutes of deliberations, they returned unanimous guilty verdicts.
An application for bail was refused and Judge Roderick Maguire remanded Luczak in custody.
A sentencing hearing will take place on 10 November.
