Couple face trial over €100k drugs and €340k cash haul

A husband and wife have been sent for trial over the seizure of €100,000 of cannabis and more than €300,000 in suspected drug-dealing proceeds at their home.

Diego Dos Santos Carvalho (32) and his wife Nela Carvalho (31) had books of evidence served on them at Dublin District Court.

Judge Monika Leech sent them forward for trial to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

The parents of two young children were arrested last year following garda searches at their home in Phibsborough, in the north of the city. Mr Carvalho is charged with possession of cannabis for sale or supply, following an estimated €5,000 seizure made in a car that was stopped at Goldsmith Street on March 11, 2023.

He is charged with the same offence over €100,000 worth of the drug found in a follow-up search at his home at Royal Canal View Apartments on the same day.

He also faces a money-laundering charge related to €341,975 of alleged crime proceeds also found at that address.

Ms Carvalho is only accused of possession of the cannabis found at the couple’s apartment.

Before the books of evidence were served, the court heard they had both been charged with the additional offence of possession of more than €13,000 worth of cannabis for sale or supply.

Neither made any reply after caution.

Both the accused were remanded on bail to appear in the circuit court on a later date.

Last year, the court heard neither of the accused made any reply to the original charges.

It was alleged Mr Carvalho was “caught in the act” transporting drugs in a car before the larger amount of cannabis was found in the couple’s home.