Sidney Gibson
Two men behind a lucrative drug-smuggling business from Holland into Co Donegal have been jailed.
Sidney Gibson,47, and Andrew Neeson, 34, were caught by Gardai after an elaborate sting operation during which they were caught with €400,000 worth of cannabis.
The drugs had been intercepted by Customs officers at Dublin Airport and had been scheduled to be taken by courier to Donegal.
Customs alerted Gardai and a ‘controlled delivery’ was set up to catch those receiving the drugs.
A total of four boxes of drugs, each containing 5kgs of cannabis herb worth €100,000, were delivered to two men, a Mr McNally and a Mr White.
The boxes were due to be collected at the Topaz Service Station in Castlefinn on February 11th, 2014.
Neeson, a separated father-of-two of Donnyloop, Castlefinn, arrived at the garage and did a few circles of the garage but eventually collected two of the boxes before being arrested by undercover Gardai.
Two of the boxes were due to be delivered the following day to an address of a courier company.
Gardai searched the home of Neeson and found two other similar empty boxes in which the drugs had been contained in a recycling bin.
Following an investigation, Garda Derek Connaughton said they suspected local truck driver Sidney Gibson, a married father-of-four, was involved in the incident.
He was arrested and he admitted his part in the scam and said he was merely a middle man and was paying off a drug debt.
Garda Connaughton said Gibson had admitted his part straight away and said Neeson did not know what were in the boxes but had merely left his garage door open for Gibson to collect.
Garda Connaughton said they believed that at least ten boxes allegedly containing drugs had previously been left at Neeson’s house.
Addressing Letterkenny Circuit Court, Judge John O’Hagan said that drugs are a scourge and while the ‘godfathers’ of the drugs are seldom caught, the ‘soldiers’ are often caught.
Referring to the street value of the drugs, he added “That’s an awful lot of money and it indicates an awful lot of harm out there.”
He said that while Gibson may have claimed he was a middle man, he knew exactly what he was doing and asked what he would think of people who tried to sell drugs to his own children.
In relation to Neeson, he said he may have been “sucked in” by Gibson but he did so in the knowledge that he was doing something wrong.
Judge O’Hagan sentenced Gibson, of 319 The Curragh, Killygordon to four years in prison but suspended the last six months and Neeson, of Skelpy Lower, Castlefinn to three years in prison with the last 18 months suspended.