Castlebar drug dealer gets five years for cocaine possession

A CASTLEBAR drug dealer claimed he was set up by another drug dealer after he was found with over €11,000 worth of cocaine on the streets of Ballina.

Alan Boyle (48) of 115 McHale Road, Castlebar, was sentenced to a total of five years’ imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of cocaine for sale and supply on two separate dates in June 2022.

A sitting of Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court heard that five days after Mr Boyle was detected with €1,455 worth of cocaine in his home in Castlebar on June 24, 2022, he was found by gardaí with €11,676 of cocaine in Ballina.

Debt

Mr Boyle, who has 69 previous convictions, told Judge Eoin Garavan that he owed money for a drug debt and after gardaí seized the cocaine from his home on June 24, 2022, he had more debt piled on top of him.

The court heard that €1,090 in cash was also seized from his home. The defendant had approached Garda Caroline Hyland of the Mayo Divisional Drug Task Force and asked her to return the money so he could pay the debt. When Garda Hyland said she could not do that he claimed he had to sell more drugs and claimed he was set up by someone who informed the gardaí in Ballina.

“I was under severe pressure to do this, to pay off the debt… I was trying to get out. Garda Hyland can verify that I did approach her [to ask] if I could have the money back to pay off these people and she couldn’t give it. Because I did not get the money back to pay off these people I had no choice but to do what I did. I believe, your honour, that I was set up on this drug charge. The reason is I only had the drugs in my hands for ten minutes and there were two patrol cars sitting on the side of the road waiting for me,” he told the court.

Ballina arrest

Garda Hyland explained that Mr Boyle’s residence in Castlebar was searched by members of the Divisional Drug Task Force at around 5.55pm on June 24, 2022 after receiving confidential information. The defendant was one of three males in the house where cocaine worth €1,455.04, cannabis worth €762 and €1,090 in cash was seized.

On June 29, 2022, Garda Chris Barrett received information at 8.30pm that there was a car acting suspiciously on Lord Edward Street in Ballina. The car was stopped at Clare Street, Ballina. Mr Boyle was in the passenger seat, and he and the driver appeared nervous.

The car was searched and a blue plastic bag containing cocaine fell to the ground from inside Mr Boyle’s jacket. The bag contained a further 48 individually wrapped plastic bags containing 116.8g of cocaine worth a street value of €11,676.

Rehabilitation

Mr Duirmuid Connolly, counsel for Mr Boyle said his client pleaded guilty and took admissions for the drugs. He said that at the time of the earlier detection he had a drug debt of €7,000 due to a chronic drug addiction and this rose to €8,000 as a result of the loss of drugs. He said that people ‘higher up’ to whom he owed the debt were ‘difficult to deal with’ and this made him decide to sell drugs to pay off the debt.

Mr Connolly said his client was under economic stress when he committed the offences. He added that Mr Boyle is separated from his partner and has children, and the court heard he breached a safety order resulting in him being placed in custody.

As a result of a previous conviction he was given a community service order, which Mr Connolly said he participated in and was given a reference for the work he did. He said this showed he has potential to turn away from drugs with proper rehabilitation.

Mr Connolly asked Judge Eoin Garavan to structure a sentence that has rehabilitation to the fore, saying he believes his client will stop offending once he deals with his addiction.

Foreseeable

Judge Garavan said this was a serious matter not only because of the level of drugs involved but also because the detections occurred just five days apart.

He accepted that Mr Boyle had got into a spiral of debt but he noted it was all self-induced, all foreseeable and so not a mitigating factor.

“He knows exactly the way it [drugs trade] works and ignorance of the issue is not a mitigating factor,” Judge Garavan said.

“He may well have been set up, but the responsibility for the offence is neither here nor there. It is a sinister network that is going on and a dog-eat-dog approach in this type of matter,” he added.

Judge Garavan noted the defendant’s previous convictions, which included a conviction for drug possession and sale and supply before these latest detections, saying Mr Boyle he knew the implications of his actions.

He said that he admitted to his probation officer that he continues to use cannabis. He is considered a very high risk of reoffending and lacks insight and accountability.

Judge Garavan imposed a four-year sentence for the offence in Ballina and a one-year sentence for the Castlebar detection and stated they will run consecutively. He refused to suspend the sentence because he felt Mr Boyle did not ‘come up to the mark’ in efforts to rehabilitate himself.

Mr Boyle had also appealed the severity of a six-week sentence imposed in the district court after he was convicted of public order offences at Lough Lannagh in Castlebar on May 31, 2023. The court heard he was intoxicated and was challenging people to fight him and also threatened gardaí when they arrived.

Judge Garavan reaffirmed the order of the district court but stated the six-week sentence will run concurrently with the five-year sentence.