Courts / Dublin / Report

Criminal who took part in €2.1m cannabis operation stocked home full of expensive items, despite being on dole

Date
2024-06-06

Stage
Sentence

Primary locality
Tallaght

County
Dublin

Summary

Edward Farrell, 49, admitted to possessing €2,173,920 worth of cannabis for sale or supply, with 105 kg found in a white Ford Transit van outside his Knocklyon home and an additional 15 kg in three black bin bags transported to Mountain Park, Tallaght. Gardaí also seized signed Oasis memorabilia, expensive whiskey, designer trainers, a disguised stun gun, drug paraphernalia including a vacuum‑packing machine, weighing scales and a mobile phone used for encrypted drug‑distribution messages. Surveillance captured Farrell moving the bin bags into a BMW X5 and then to a BMW 3 Series, where co‑accused Kevin Murphy, 41, was met. Murphy, who pleaded guilty to 15 kg of cannabis, was sentenced to four years earlier this year. Farrell, who has 32 prior convictions and claims to be on social welfare and HAP assistance, will be sentenced on 22 July.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Criminal who took part in €2.1m cannabis operation stocked home full of expensive items, despite being on dole. Charges or matters: possessing €2,173,920 worth of cannabis for sale or supply; having various drug paraphernalia including a vacuum-packing machine, vacuum-packed bagging material, several weighing scales and a mobile referred to by gardaí as a "job phone" on which he got encrypted messages with instructions for drug dealing; possessing 15kg of cannabis for sale or supply and was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this year. Procedural stage: sentence

When:

February 20 Incident
July 22 Adjournment
2024-06-06 Publication

Case subjects

Edward Farrell

Convicted Person

Charges: possessing €2,173,920 worth of cannabis for sale or supply; having various drug paraphernalia including a vacuum-packing machine, vacuum-packed bagging material, several weighing scales and a mobile referred to by gardaí as a "job phone" on which he got encrypted messages with instructions for drug dealing; possessing 15kg of cannabis for sale or supply and was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this year (Admitted)

Plea: Guilty

Outcome: Edward Farrell (49) will be sentenced next month after he admitted possessing €2.17 million worth of cannabis for sale or supply in a van outside his home at Castlefield Way, Knocklyon and at another address in Mountain Park, Tallaght, on February 20 last year. Farrell will be sentenced on July 22.

Kevin Murphy

Convicted Person

Charges: possessing 15kg of cannabis for sale or supply and was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this year (Admitted)

Plea: Guilty

Outcome: Passing sentence last month, Judge Martin Nolan accepted that Murphy had been a "mere transporter and holder" of the drugs on the day, that he was not the owner of the cannabis and that his culpability was at the lower end.