James Manning sentenced for €3.5m cannabis possession

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

James Manning was sentenced for possessing 177kg of cannabis at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, reported on 16 October 2018. He received nine years in prison, with the final three years suspended for three years. The drugs, worth approximately €3.5 million, were found in 15 cardboard boxes in his van after Garda Thomas Barrett stopped him on the N4 for using a mobile phone while driving. Manning had pleaded guilty to the offence. Judge Francis Comerford said the appropriate sentence without mitigation would have been 12 years, citing his early guilty plea, vulnerability and supportive family background. A hearing on forfeiture of the van was due later that month.