A MAN who stored and sold drugs for an organised crime gang, and laundered the gang’s drug money, has been jailed for nine years.
Ian Hopkins (33) is being kept under 23-hour protective lockdown in his prison cell for his own safety, after drugs and cash he was storing for criminals was recovered by Gardai on several occasions, Limerick Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Mr Hopkins admitted a plethora of charges of possessing cannabis and cocaine for sale or supply, as well as laundering the proceeds of drug deals.
“He is on protection while in custody, in order to protect him from individuals or agents of individuals who are unhappy that he was subject to Garda attention, and because a significant amount of drugs were seized,” Mr McInerney told the court.
“Some might say he brought it on himself by getting involved in drugs, but there is no likelihood he will be able to interact with the general prison population.”
Judge Colin Daly said Hopkins was “intensively involved in the sale and supply of drugs in Limerick City”.
Hopkins, who at the time was in throws of a drug addiction, continued selling and storing drugs despite being arrested a number of times.
His descent into the drug gang’s activities began in earnest on December 12, 2020, when Gardaí stopped him driving a Mercedes traveling with passengers, and discovered €24,810 cash and €3,352 worth of cannabis on his person.
When asked about the cash, Hopkins told Gardai: “Me getting shot is what that is for … There’s €20,000 there.”
A month later, on January 16, 2021, Gardaí intercepted Hopkins in a car at Castletroy in possession of €554 of cannabis, cash, a hatchet, and a handsaw. Hopkins told Gardai he had the weapons for his own “protection”.
A follow-up search of an apartment he was using at Bloomfield, Annacotty, yielded over €16,600 worth of cannabis, €2,951 in cash, amphetamine tablets, and drug paraphernalia.
“He was a classic drugs mule, carrying out activities for other criminals,” remarked the prosecution’s barrister, John O’Sullivan BL.
At the time, Hopkins told Gardaí he was addicted to drugs and was storing and selling drugs in order to pay off a €40,000 drug debt. He said he was also taking tablets for anxiety and depression.
The court also heard Hopkins was found bleeding heavily inside an apartment in Limerick City in December 2021 after two masked men attempted to break in to the property. When Gardaí responded to the flat, they seized €6,550 cash and €4,500 worth of cannabis.
In a follow-up Garda operation targeting Hopkins, Gardaí seized over €42,000 worth of cannabis, plus cocaine, MDA, and a cocaine mixing agent from his car and his address at Fedamore.
At the time, Hopkins, who had not worked since 2019, told Gardaí he was living on social welfare, studying an online cyber security course, and was struggling with addiction.
Judge Daly said Hopkins acted was in “a position of trust, and by acting as the delivery person, he was involving himself intentionally in assisting a drug-dealing operation of a criminal organisation”.
The judge said it would have been “unjust” to impose a mandatory presumptive minimum 10-year sentence, taking into account his guilty pleas, his “assistance” to Gardaí, his early school leaving and ADHD diagnosis, and the fact that “he has been drug free for more than five months”.
Hopkins was jailed for five years and four years consecutively along with several concurrent sentences for the drugs and money-laundering offences.
