A Co Offaly farmer has been jailed for eight years, with another two years suspended, after €730,000 worth of cannabis was found in his articulated lorry.
Martin Murray, 58, Crimlin Little, Moneygall, Birr was sentenced today after being found guilty at the end of a trial in May.
Mr Murray had denied importing the drugs into Ireland and having them for sale or supply to others, but a jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict at Tullamore Circuit Court.
The sentencing hearing was told Mr Murray was charged after gardaí had stopped him when he was driving a truck at Dunkerrin, Co Offaly on 30 June, 2017.
Detective Garda Val Russell told Judge Keenan Johnson that gardaí mounted a surveillance operation on "all major routes" in Ireland after receiving information that Mr Murray had come into Northern Ireland from Cairnryan and intended driving home to Moneygall.
Detective Garda Russell said the lorry engaged in counter surveillance manoeuvres, giving the example of where it had exited from the motorway, gone across a bridge, and then drove again on the motorway in the original direction.
When it exited at Barack Obama Plaza it was followed by another garda detective and he pulled Mr Murray's vehicle over near his home.
Mr Murray co-operated with a search of the lorry, saying: "No problem, there's nothing on it."
No drugs were found in searches at Dunkerrin and Nenagh Garda Station and the truck was brought to Dublin Port where the cannabis was discovered when holes were drilled in sealed steel tubes to permit the use of a camera.
Analysis of sat nav and tachograph equipment revealed the truck had been driven from Moneygall to Rosslare and across to Breda in the Netherlands via the UK, before returning to Ireland through England and Scotland.
Detective Garda Russell said Mr Murray had a previous conviction for the sale and supply of drugs dating from 1999 when he received a seven-and-a-half-year sentence at Naas Circuit Court for an offence committed in October 1996.
He had also received a five-year suspended sentence for larceny in 1996 and his most recent offences were for road traffic matters in 2010 and 2009.
Michael Gillespie, solicitor for Mr Murray, said the accused's sole defence had been knowledge and the State's case relied on the statutory presumption of knowledge on the part of his client.
Mr Gillespie said there was no evidence that Mr Murray was present when the substance was put into the steel tubes which were sealed, and he had been instructed to tell the court that there would be an appeal.
The solicitor said Mr Murray had left school at 14 having completed one year of secondary education because his father was ill and that he had been principally a farmer since then.
He also got involved in haulage and on this occasion he picked up a load in Holland to bring to Ireland.
Mr Gillespie said the trial had heard evidence from James Quinn, a former president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, that a haulier would only be entitled to carry out a visual inspection of his load.
Mr Gillespie presented testimonials on Mr Murray's behalf from a number of people, including a haulier, a mechanic, farmers and a vet.
Judge Johnson said the minimum sentence for an offence of this kind involving drugs valued at €13,000 or more was 10 years but he could depart from that in certain circumstances.
He noted the accused had pleaded not guilty and had a previous conviction for a similar offence.
He said the amount and kind of drug was an aggravating factor, saying that cannabis was anything but a "soft drug" and along with being a gateway to other drugs, 5% of cannabis users went on to develop schizophrenia.
Mitigating factors included the man's co-operation with the gardaí, his recent unblemished record, and the impact on his brother which was a "significant penalty in itself".
The offence carried a sentence of up to life but the headline sentence he imposed was 10 years, with the final two years suspended upon entry of a €500 peace bond for five years post-release.
The sentence was backdated to 4 May last when Mr Murray first went into custody.
