Stephen Carberry sentenced for €1.5m drugs offences

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

Stephen Carberry was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 26 July 2023 to nine years for five counts of possessing cannabis and ecstasy for sale and supply, with the final 12 months suspended. Judge Elma Sheahan gave him credit for more than 360 days already served in custody, and the sentence was backdated to April 2023, producing an overall imprisonment term of about six years and 10 months.

Carberry had pleaded not guilty. The offences occurred on 23 May 2013 at The Strand, Donabate, where gardaí found 27.9kg of cannabis and more than 96,000 ecstasy tablets. His DNA was identified on a phone charger at the property, while he gave gardaí an account of his movements when interviewed.

The investigating garda accepted that Carberry had no previous drug convictions, had not faced another drug-related charge in the following decade, and that the trial had been delayed, including by the Covid-19 pandemic. Defence counsel Garret Baker SC also raised Carberry’s family responsibilities, health difficulties and the murder of his brother in 2019.

Judge Sheahan initially set an 11-year headline sentence, citing the seriousness of the offending and Carberry’s failure to accept the jury’s verdict. She reduced it because of the time since the charge, while noting his role in the drugs operation. The sentence had been adjourned for finalisation, with urine analysis and a governor’s report ordered.