Blister packs of Clonazolam tablets, with a street value of almost €50,000 were found in a brown cardboard box.
A vulnerable man who told Gardaí he did not know there were drugs inside a cardboard box he had been given, has been given an 18 month suspended sentence at Dundalk Circuit Court.
45 year old Savino Oregano of Rathmullen Park, Drogheda pleaded guilty to permitting the possession of a controlled drug for the purpose of sale or supply at his home on March ninth last year.
Members of the divisional drugs unit based at Drogheda Garda station breached the door of the defendant’s home and found him asleep on the couch when they executed a search warrant.
Blister packs of Clonazolam tablets, with a street value of almost €50,000 were found in a brown cardboard box.
The defendant told Gardaí he’d been given the box by another person and didn’t know what was in it. He was given €50 and told the man’s sister would be around to collect it.
The court heard the defendant had a cocaine addiction, after someone told the drug would make him feel better after the mother of his four children passed away in 2020 and he described it as the worst mistake of his life.
He is now clean of cocaine for 13 months.
The defendant had 39 previous convictions, but his barrister stressed that he was extremely vulnerable and has mental health issues, and said he was highly reckless to accept the box ‘knowing who this gentleman was’.
Judge Dara Hayes imposed an 18 month sentence, but he suspended it on the defendant entering a good behaviour bond and placing himself under the supervision of the Probation Service for 12 months, as there was no relevant offending, he has a good record of employment and he has made serious efforts to separate himself from anti-social peers.
