Man caught growing €47k of cannabis in Newport

A man caught cultivating cannabis worth €47,000 at a property in Newport has been handed a two-year prison sentence.
Richardas Selvenis (54), originally from Lithuania but with an address at Glenhest, Newport, appeared before last Thursday’s sitting of Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court, where he pleaded guilty to two offences under the misuse of drugs act.
Detective Garda SeΡn Ryan told the court in July 2018 that An Gardaí SíochΡna had received confidential information regarding the possibility of cannabis at an address in Glenhest, Newport. At 10.30pm on July 20, 2018, they called to that address and met Mr Selvenis at the front gate.
They subsequently searched the house and found 26 cannabis plants in the front room, 22 plants in a rear room, ten plants in a small tent, two jars of cannabis, four empty packets of cannabis seeds, growing charts, energy bills and cannabis-growing catalogues.
The court heard that the potential value of the drugs was €47,214.
Garda Ryan said they were totally satisfied that Mr Selvenis was acting as the ‘gardener’ in the operation and was ‘making nothing out of it’.
Mr Diarmuid Connolly, counsel for the accused, said his client, who has two previous ‘minor’ drug convictions, both of which took place out of this jurisdiction, was completely remorseful, had ‘learnt his lesson’ and has ‘no desire to go back to that life’.
He highlighted how Mr Selvenis, a father of two, has an ‘excellent record’ since being taken into custody last July, and he asked Judge Rory McCabe to be as lenient as possible with his sentencing.
Judge McCabe noted that the amount found was a ‘substantial sum, but not in the overall context of the drugs business’, and he highlighted the defendant’s ‘longstanding involvement in drugs’.
Judge McCabe sentenced Mr Selvenis to two years in prison, back-dating the sentence to July, when he was first taken into custody. He then suspended the balance for a total of five years and ordered the destruction of the drugs.