Darren Gleeson jailed for IRA membership over grenades

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Darren Gleeson was jailed for three years and six months for IRA membership at the Special Criminal Court on 7 December 2017. The case concerned two inert grenades ordered through the dark net for delivery to a Dublin address.

Gleeson had pleaded guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself as the IRA. The sentence was backdated to 18 May 2017, when the controlled delivery took place and he accepted the package.

The court heard that the delivery followed communications about acquiring explosives and payment using Bitcoin. The judge said Gleeson operated at a lower level, but sufficient trust had been placed in him to arrange delivery.

The sentence reflected his guilty plea, co-operation at the scene and family circumstances, although previous convictions reduced the mitigation available to him.