Hyonaru Moreno jailed for importing cocaine into Ireland

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

Hyonaru Moreno was jailed for two and a half years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for importing more than 1.5 kilograms of cocaine into Ireland. The proceedings were reported on 13 December 2019.

Moreno pleaded guilty to one count of importing cocaine and one count of possessing cocaine for sale or supply. The importation was at Dublin Airport on 8 June 2019.

After customs officers became suspicious of her answers about her planned stay, gardaí were called. Moreno spent two days in Beaumont Hospital, where she passed packages containing €37,000 worth of cocaine. Some drugs were also retrieved from her vagina.

Barry White SC, defending, said Moreno had been “conned” into coming to Ireland and was told she had to bring drugs into the country only in the last couple of hours before boarding her flight.

Judge Martin Nolan described the offence as a crime of desperation for financial reward. He backdated the sentence to June, when Moreno went into custody. She had no previous convictions.