GUILTY PLEA | 

Dublin man (22) jailed after cocaine worth €527k found in van outside girlfriend’s house

Gardaí agreed with Dominic McGinn SC, defending, that O’Keeffe was “not a criminal mastermind” and was “very low down” in the operation

Today at 14:54

A Dublin man described as “not a criminal mastermind” has been jailed for four and a half years, after gardaí found cocaine worth over half a million euro in a van outside his girlfriend’s house.

Lewis O’Keeffe (22) of Kylemore Drive in Ballyfermot, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of possessing controlled drugs and almost €30,000 in cash on July 5 last year.

He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison at a sitting of Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today.

A prosecuting garda told Breffni Gordon BL, for the State, that confidential information was received about to-ings and fro-ings from a house on O’Moore Road in Ballyfermot.

Gardaí executed a warrant on the day in question and met O’Keeffe and his partner, who lived at the address on O’Moore Road.

Gardaí found cocaine worth €2,500 inside the house along with the sum in cash of €29,265.

A further quantity of over 7.5 kg of cocaine was discovered in a cardboard box in the rear of Peugeot van outside the house.

In total, the cocaine seized was given a street value of over €527,000.

O’Keeffe told gardaí he didn’t own the drugs but was aware of them.

His own car was also outside the house and he had taken his tax and insurance discs off his car and put them into the van, the court heard.

On arrest, O’Keeffe initially denied wrongdoing but went on to claim some sort of ownership and knowledge of the drugs and cash

Judge Martin Nolan accepted that O’Keeffe had been under severe pressure and had succumbed to temptation to hold money and drugs.

Judge Nolan said it was a bad misjudgement but that O’Keeffe had a low level of culpability and had been very young. “Young people make bad decisions under pressure,” he added.