Courts / Dublin / Report
Albanian man jailed for people smuggling
Summary
Kevin Ahmetay, a 26‑year‑old Albanian national with no fixed abode, pleaded guilty in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of unlawfully assisting a friend's entry into Ireland. The offence stemmed from an incident at Terminal One, Dublin Airport, where Ahmetay and his friend, both from Albania, were stopped after arriving from Italy. Gardaí discovered that the friend used a false name and a false Bulgarian passport, while Ahmetay had produced a genuine Bulgarian passport in his own name and claimed no connection to the other man. However, authorities linked the two men by their shared booking and sequential check‑in. Ahmetay admitted he had held his friend's genuine Albanian passport, which he intended to return after they entered Ireland for onward travel. He had a prior UK conviction for cannabis production, resulting in a suspended sentence.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: Albanian man jailed for people smuggling. Procedural stage: sentence
When:
- May 5 Incident
- 2024-11-07 Publication
Case subjects
Defendant
Outcome: Passing sentence today, Judge Martin Nolan said that Ahmetay had been holding his friend's true documents, while the friend travelled under false documents. The judge set a headline sentence of three years, but by reason of what he said was Ahmetay's excellent mitigation, he reduced this to a sentence of 16 months, backdated to May 5 this year.
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