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Gang operating West Cork drug laboratory given jail terms of between five and 12 years

Tuesday, 8 May 2018 18:21

An Irish gang caught operating an elaborate cocaine extraction laboratory in West Cork where they were extracting the drug from cocaine soaked fabric imported from South  America have been given jail terms varying from 12 years to five years.

Father of three, 37-year-old Sean MacManus from Baldoyle, Dublin was described as the main organiser of the elaborate drugs operation by Judge Sean O Donnabhain at Cork Circuit Criminal Court today when he sentenced him to 15 years in jail with three years suspended.

Co-accused, 25-year-old Molly Sloyan from Abbey Court in Kinsale but with an address at Benidorm in Spain and 27-year-old Dean Gilsenan from Clondalkin in Dublin were each given ten year sentences with three years suspended for their part in the operation.

A fourth co-accused, Dean Gilsenan's father, 52-year-old William also with an address in Clondalkin was given a seven year sentence with two years suspended for his part in the cocaine extracting scheme at the house they had rented at Seascapes, Dromleigh in Bantry.

All four had pleaded guilty to possessing over €50,000 worth of cocaine for sale or supply when authorities raided the house on November 26th last year. 

The court heard how the gang used an industrial cleaning agent to leach cocaine from the lining of a duvet which had been soaked in the drug and posted to an address in Clondalkin from Sao Paulo in Brazil on September 28th 2017 - before being brought to the house in Bantry. 

The judge said it was an extraordinary case and he could not compare it to either a normal possession for sale or supply case or a cannabis growhouse case given the level of planning and organisation that went into importing the fabric from Brazil and extracting the cocaine.

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