Crystal meth accused deemed a f light risk and refused bail after father’s €100k offer
Businessman connected to €32m seizure must remain behind bars
A BUSINESSMAN charged in connection with the State’s biggest crystal meth seizure has been refused bail by the High Court, due to fears he could be a flight risk.
Judge Karen O’Connor said it had been alleged that Nathan McDonnell had been ‘caught red-handed’ and that even an offer of €100,000 of his father’s life savings was not sufficient to secure his bail.
It is alleged he helped to import methamphetamine with a street value of €32million, coming from Mexico and going to Australia, having been stored at his garden centre in Tralee, Co. Kerry.
Mr McDonnell has denied knowing that 546kg of drugs was contained in the allegedly bogus recycling machine at Ballyseedy Garden Centre.
The judge said she had no doubts about his father, passenger ship operator Michael McDonnell’s integrity, and his utmost faith in his son. She said that Nathan McDonnell must be presumed to be innocent unless proved otherwise at trial.
However, she said the evidence alleged against Nathan McDonnell suggested that he had associated with people connected to an international, organised crime group. ‘This operation must have had available to it significant sums, given the nature of the enterprise,’ she said.
She continued: ‘€100,000, while a huge sum to his father and to most people, is not a substantial amount in the overall scheme of things.’
Judge O’Connor gave her ruling at Cloverhill Courthouse yesterday, after the application for bail was made last week.
Nathan McDonnell, 43, who appeared via video link from Portlaoise Prison, has been charged with possession of drugs worth more than €13,000 for sale or supply at Ballyseedy Garden Centre in Tralee, Co. Kerry, between October 27 and February 12 this year. The judge said Detective Sergeant Ernie Henderson had told the court that 546kg of crystal meth had been found by Customs officers at the Port of Cork, following a yearlong investigation by the Kerry Drugs Unit. It was concealed in a ‘sophisticated’ fashion in an electromagnetic metal separating machine, but which had no electronics and was just a disguise, the court was told. It was alleged Nathan McDonnell had created a false invoice to bring the machine into the port and have it transported to his garden centre in October, and had arranged to pay a person in Australia €5,000 to use their tax number to allow the machine to be exported.
It was also alleged he had used a forklift to lift the machine into a vehicle so it could be driven from his garden centre to the port on February 12.
The evidence was said to include CCTV footage, emails and telephone records, the court heard. The machine was under Garda surveillance, and was never opened.
Det. Sgt Henderson said Mr McDonnell, from Ballyroe, Tralee, had been the director of 11 companies, with a turnover of between €4.5million and €5million, which he had liquidated since his arrest.
He said the organised crime gang had cryptocurrency accounts worth ‘hundreds of millions’.
He alleged that Mr McDonnell had the means and funds to avoid prosecution and flee the jurisdiction, the judge noted.
Judge O’Connor said Mr McDonnell had not been charged with membership of a criminal organisation.
However, she said it was open for the purposes of a bail application to consider the allegation that he had ‘associated with persons who are connected with organised crime’.
‘The court was told the operation in question was a sophisticated operation and Mr McDonnell was part of it,’ she said.
She said it was alleged that without Mr McDonnell’s input, the operation ‘would not have happened’.
It was argued by his defence counsel that some of Mr McDonnell’s companies had been struggling, and one was €2million in debt, she said.
It was also argued that he was not a flight risk, due to his strong family and community ties, and that he would abide by strict bail conditions.
Judge O’Connor said she had considered the application very carefully, including the seriousness of the alleged crime and the strength of the evidence presented by the prosecution.
‘The purported evidence would appear to be strongly compelling – it might be argued that he was caught red-handed,’ she said.
She said Mr McDonnell’s claim that he did not know there were drugs in the container would be a real issue to be decided at trial.
The potential sentence if he was convicted, could range from ten years to life in prison, she noted.
Refusing bail, she said: ‘I am not satisfied there are any conditions I could impose which would allay the concerns regarding his flight risk.’
The court has heard that further charges may be brought against Mr McDonnell before the case proceeds to a full trial.
A bail application for his coaccused, James Leen of Pilgrim Hill, Kilmorna, Listowel, Co. Kerry, is due to be held at the High Court tomorrow.
Mr McDonnell and Mr Leen are both due to appear in Tralee District Court again today, for DPP directions.
‘A huge sum to his father’ ‘Sophisticated operation’