Bray man with 'ordinary day-to-day job' caught in €142,000 drug ring
Declan Brennan
A man with 25 years of employment has been jailed for five and a half years for his part in the distribution of drugs with an estimated street value of over €142,000.
On May 26th, 2023, gardaí raided a house in Dublin city centre and found five men sitting around a kitchen table with drugs and money on the table, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Gardaí seized €4,198 in cash and significant quantities of heroin, cocaine, MDMA, ketamine, and cannabis resin.
The combined estimated street value of the drugs was €15,847, Detective Garda Shauna Ferncombe told Diana Stuart SC, prosecuting.
Wicklow resident Roy Gunning (46) was arrested at the scene. A bank card found in the raid was linked to a flat in Santry in north Dublin, in which Gunning's passport was also found.
During a follow-up search of this flat, gardaí found drugs with a total estimated street value of approximately €49,000, including €48,000 worth of MDMA powder and over 370 Zopiclone tablets.
Gunning was arrested and charged and released on bail. Two months later, gardaí carried out a raid on a different flat in Santry in which Gunning was living as a tenant.
They seized various quantities of ketamine, heroin, cocaine, MDMA, and THC jellies with a combined street value of nearly €16,000. The drugs were found stored throughout the house, including the fridge and the kitchen press.
Car keys for a VW Golf parked in the apartment complex were found. Gardaí searched the car and found MDMA with a street value of €61,570.
Gunning was in the flat along with a woman, who is still before the courts.
Gunning of King Edward Park, Bray, Co Wicklow, pleaded guilty to possession of drugs worth more than €13,000 for sales or supply at the North Circular Road Dublin 7 on May 26th, 2023.
He also pleaded guilty to the same offence at Blackwood Square, Northwood, Santry, Dublin 9.
Dt Gda Ferncombe told the court that CCTV footage showed Gunning going back and forth from the car and moving a package from one car to another. She said ticklists were also found in the VW Golf, and the car's logbook was in his name.
In interview, Gunning was cooperative and admitted he was holding and distributing the drugs. He has six previous convictions for drug-dealing offences.
John Byrne SC, defending, told the court that Gunning had held down an “ordinary day-to-day job” at Power City for 25 years. Gda Ferncombe accepted there was no investigation into his finances and that the €4,500 in his bank account was from his legitimate income.
Counsel said his client was a father of three who began using cocaine after his marriage ended in divorce.
Judge Martin Nolan said that Gunning was caught red-handed during the first raid. He said the drugs found there were “undoubtedly going to be sold on the street”.
He said Gunning was transporting and holding the drugs. He said the evidence was that Gunning had built up a drug debt from using cocaine and that he was “coerced to some degree” to become involved.
“I don't think he’s top of the pyramid, but he is the middle man, distributing to dealers,” Judge Nolan said.
He noted the mitigating factors were Gunning's pleas of guilty, his co-operation with gardaí, and his long and “good history” of work.
He imposed sentences of two and a half years for the first drugs offence and three years for the second one. The sentences must run consecutively because Gunning was on bail when he committed the second offence.
