You are financing the Dublin gang feud, judge tells man caught with drugs in Glendalough
A JUDGE told a young man that he was feeding into a gang war which has claimed seven lives.
‘He’s feeding into this feud going on in town,’ said Judge David Kennedy at Bray District Court last Thursday. ‘ These are illegal drugs controlled by gangs, who have access to guns and few morals. You are financing that. Seven people have been killed over the last couple of months.’
Paul O’Connor (25), 6 Glenshesk Road, Whitehall, Dublin 9, admitted possession of drugs at the barn dance festival at Glendalough House, Annamoe, on April 3, 2015.
He was searched at around 7 p.m. and found with 48 MDMA tablets with a value of €667; 0.87 grams of cocaine with a value of €60; 0.516 grams of herbal cannabis worth €10; and 22 2cb tablets worth €20.
O’Connor gave a caution statement to garda Robert Whelan and said he bought them for friends and for his own consumption.
Solicitor Brendan Maloney said that O’Connor has done very well in accounting and finance, having earned a degree from Blanchardstown IT.
He has entered into a drug counselling programme.
‘You were 24, not a 17-yearold child,’ Judge Kennedy told the man, who was appealing for leniency.
O’Connor said: ‘I wouldn’t waste this chance. I would be very grateful. I just don’t want this to haunt me for the rest of my life. I will never engage with anything like that again. I know what I did was wrong.’
The judge said: ‘You were caught. You may never have been caught and I don’t doubt that you would have kept on.
‘I don’t think it would serve an- ything if he went to jail, although that’s certainly what he deserves.’
He adjourned the matter to September 12 for a Community Service report.