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Furniture tycoon accused over plot to smuggle €2.5m of cocaine is given trial date
Mr Quinn has denied “anything to do with or any knowledge of” the plot to smuggle €2.5m worth of cocaine into Ireland through Rosslare
Patrick O’Connell
Today at 06:56
A FORMER furniture businessman is set to go on trial in June charged over a plot to smuggle €2.5 million worth of cocaine through Rosslare Europort four-and-a-half years ago.
John Quinn (61), a former director of the furniture company Jondol, was given a trial date of June 11th when he appeared before a court in Naas last week.
Mr Quinn’s address has been previously given on court documents as Woodside House, Dunnstown Wood, Brannockstown, Co Kildare
Mr Quinn has denied “anything to do with or any knowledge of” the plot to smuggle €2.5m worth of cocaine into Ireland through Rosslare Europort on November 3, 2018.
When the matter previously came before Naas District Court in June 2021, Judge Desmond Zaidan was told the cocaine had been discovered by customs officers hidden in a concealed compartment in a container of pallets.
The discovery was made after the container arrived at Rosslare port from Cherbourg, France.
Detective Garda David McKinley of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) said “The container came in and it had it [the cocaine] concealed in the bottom of it.”
“The shipment was stopped by customs and the container was searched and the cocaine was subsequently found in this container,” he said.
“And what evidence,” asked the judge, “led you to the suspect Mr John Quinn?”
The detective said: “The truck involved in the moving of the trailer out, we believe, was with Mr Quinn. It was paid for, it was in the hands, it was in the possession of Mr Quinn.”
Mr. Quinn’s solicitor Tim Kenneally said, in response to Det. Gda. McKinley’s evidence, “In relation to what’s just been said there, my client is denying anything to do with this Judge or any knowledge of it. I should put that on record.”
Quinn’s Kildare based furniture company Jondol Furniture Ltd, of which he was co-director with his wife Dolores, was wound down in 2012.
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