A WIDOW and mother of two, was jailed at Limerick Circuit Court for acting as a courier for a drug cartel in Limerick.
Judge Carroll Moran heard that 50-year-old Josephine Power, Cliona Park, Moyross, was apprehended by gardai on January 23, 2011 as she drove her “dark Hyundai car” back into her driveway after picking up a package from two boys on the Old Cratloe Road.
Ms Power, whose husband had died a number of months earlier from a long illness, was to leave the package in the garden for it to be picked up by someone else.
However, gardai, who had received information that the 1kg of cannabis was in transit, stopped and arrested her as she arrived home.
Recently widowed and a mother of two adult children, Ms Power had succumbed to financial difficulties after the social welfare carers allowance that she was in receipt of had been stopped following the death of her husband.
Ms Power, the court heard, was struggling, and according to Mark Nicholas, barrister, this became known to “certain people” who offered her “a few hundred pound” to do the pick up and drop off.
Mr Nicholas added that “Ms Power found it very difficult to say ‘no’ to these people,” adding that “she was in fear”.
Judge Carroll Moran heard that Ms Power had no previous convictions and came from a “law abiding family”.
The drugs, concealed in a plastic bag, were thrown into the back seat of a car after Ms Power received a call to go to a “junction on the Old Cratloe Road for the pick up”.
She was then to return home and leave them in the garden.
Struggling with bills to pay, and having suffered an emotional and financial loss, Ms Power “did the worst thing she ever did,” according to her legal counsel, and agreed to act as a courier.
He added that “stupidly, under financial pressure or otherwise, Ms Power got a terrible fright in what she did”.
Doing something that was “out of character” for her, Mark Nicholas sought leniency and asked the court not to impose a custodial sentence.
However, Judge Carroll Moran said that it was a very difficult case and that he had to take into account that while cannabis was not the most insidious of drugs, Ms Power was still involved in acting as a courier for almost €12,000 worth of drugs.
Giving credit for the early plea of guilty in the matter, the relative low level of involvement and taking into account that Ms Power was a “vulnerable lady”; he imposed an immediate 12-month custodial sentence.
Judge Carroll Moran (pictured above) said it was a very difficult case.
