A 46-year-old
Nigerian man who accepted a delivery of €42,000 worth of cocaine hidden in a
box of clothing to a house in Co Cork, Ireland was jailed for five years on
June 9, after he admitted the drug offence.
Oyibo Chukwuma, who
was born in Nigeria but is a naturalised Irish citizen, pleaded guilty to possession
of cocaine for sale or supply at Carrigaloe Cobh Co Cork, on October 19th last
year.
Det Sgt Eoin Buckley
told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that Customs Officers received information
about a package being delivered by a post and carried out tests on a white
powder in the package.
The tests showed the
powder to be cocaine and Customs together with the Garda mounted an operation
to allow a controlled delivery of the package to a house at Pearse Square in
Cobh.
Chukuama was at the
address and signed for the package. He later gave it to another man and
accompanied him and another man when they drove off with the package in a van.
Gardaí stopped the
van at Carrigaloe and recovered the package which contained almost 6kg of
cocaine hidden in between two layers of cardboard in a box containing clothes.
Det Sgt Buckley said
that while Chukwuma made no admissions, he was “not unco-operative”. And
although he returned to Nigeria for a period, he surrendered himself upon his
return to Ireland.
Donal O’Sullivan,
defending, said Chukwuma, who lived at Richmond Road, Fairview in Dublin, had
few relatives here so had few visitors since he was remanded in custody when
charged.
He said this made
prison life more difficult for Chukwuma. And he also noted that his guilty plea
had save the State the expense and difficulty of a trial with no guarantee of
success.
Mr O’Sullivan also
said Chukwuma had no previous convictions and that was to his credit. He asked
Judge David Riordan to treat him as leniently as possible.
The judge noted that
section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act carries a 10-year mandatory sentence,
but he had discretion in exceptional circumstances to reduce the penalty.
He said there were
no aggravating factors in the case and he believed the appropriate sentence was
seven years, but he would suspend the final two years of in the interest of
rehabilitation.
Source: The Irish Times
