Gardaí were waiting when Dublin man arrived to collect €1m drug consignment
Lee Corrigan, Chapel Gate, Aylesbury, Tallaght, Dublin 24, was sentenced to five years imprisonment, the final two-and-a-half years suspended.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to possess 49kgs of cannabis valued €998,100, for sale or supply at Toolfix, Ecco Road, Dundalk, on January 4, 2023.
The defendant did the job for "a few days' pay' because he was under pressure over a drugs debt. He said he was asked to collect something. He was shocked to discover the value of the consignment.
Dundalk Circuit Court heard that the day before a pallet had been delivered to the premises. It was not addressed to Toolfix but had its eircode.
The managing director was not familiar with the company the delivery had come from. Also, it was for a brand of tools they didn't stock.
He opened the boxes and hidden inside were clear plastic vacuumed-packed bags of what looked like cannabis. He contacted Gardaí.
Toolfix later received a call from a man saying that a pallet had been incorrectly delivered to them and that he would send someone to pick it up.
When Mr Corrigan arrived in a Ford Transit van Gardaí were waiting and arrested him.
Inside the vehicle investigators found a letter purportedly to be from FedEx stating that it had incorrectly made a delivery to Toolfix instead of another commercial premises. The document was of poor quality containing grammatical mistakes.
Gda Ashley McEvoy continued that Mr Corrigan told Gardaí he smoked 1g of cannabis every couple of days.
ADVERTISEMENT
He admitted being caught red-handed. He was asked to collect something and suspected it was around €1,000 of cannabis. He was shocked at the amount of cannabis
A man had sent him a screenshot of Toolfix.
The defendant added that he 'stressed out' and in debt for 'a couple of thousand'.
He had previous convictions for possession and possession for sale or drugs and had been fined €400 for each offence in the district court.
Gda McEvoy said it had not been indicated to Gardaí that a threat had been made to Mr Corrigan's family.
It was stated on his behalf that he was in a 12-year relationship and that his daughter had been born shortly before this incident. Mother and child were still in hospital at the time. It had been a difficult pregnancy.
He was under a cocaine debt and made a decision to collect these drugs.
Mr Corrigan was employed in a mechanics firm where he was well regarded and had been promoted.
He had missed his sister's wedding in Liverpool because of the bail conditions.
Judge Dara Hayes said that the previous offending was of an entirely different magnitude.
It was of concern that the defendant minimised his role to the probation officer. It was the recommendation of the Probation Service to finalise the matter.
Mr Corrigan had mental health difficulties and was assessed at low risk of reoffending. He was clearly much loved by his family. He had taken steps to put things right in his life.
However, the judge added that to be entrusted with the responsibility of collecting this amount of cannabis was a significant involvement in serious criminality.
A five-year sentence was imposed, the final two-and-a-half years suspended on condition the defendant places himself under Probation Service supervision for 12 months post release.
A destruction order was made for the drugs.
Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Stolen Sister episode 2, recapped
Ireland is reportedly set to have a particularly hot summer this year, so expect packed Ryanair flights, bursting beaches and men in shorts the second it tips towards 20C. Well, in 1976, something similar happened. It was a record-breaking summer, people booked foreign holidays, consumed sunny pints with friends and hit the beach, but as summer was drawing to a close, something profoundly evil infected the Irish shores, and it came in the form of Ireland's first serial killers - John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans. While evading the authorities in the UK, the pair decided to come to Ireland under false identities, and after a stint in prison for various burglaries across the country, they made a pact to abduct, rape and murder a woman a week until they were caught. The pair murdered two women - Elizabeth Plunkett and Mary Duffy, before receiving life sentences for their crimes, and that was supposed to be the end of it. But, a parole hearing for Shaw that began two years ago would unravel the case of Elizabeth's murder and force her family to question everything about this case to date. The team at RTÉ Documentary On One have joined forces with the Plunkett family and host Roz Purcell to create Stolen Sister, a six-part podcast dedicated to finally getting Elizabeth the justice she deserves. To learn more about the second instalment of this series, keep reading or hit play on your nearest streaming device. Witness Gardaí were able to accurately calculate Elizabeth's final movements in Brittas Bay Co Wicklow thanks to witnesses' testimonies gathered following her disappearance - many of which are recited by actors throughout this podcast. The series reminds the listener that a simple decision like not turning your car around or not getting involved in a stranger's odd exchange can irrevocably alter the course of multiple lives. We learn that a witness, Mary Anne Greene, saw Elizabeth on the street right before she was abducted wearing her white slacks, navy blue Saint Tropez sweater and sandals. Greene later drove past Castletimon woods, where the two men had brought Elizabeth. She could see a vehicle parked on the right-hand side to the opening to the woods. It was lit up inside - this happened at roughly 12.45am, meaning Elizabeth was still alive. Another witness, David James McDonald, witnessed Evans slow down, pull over and speak to Elizabeth; he later told investigators that he knew something felt off. McDonald turned to his friend in the passenger seat and asked if they should turn back. The friend said no, so they drove on. Despite what her killers would later claim, Elizbeth's best friend Mella still maintains that she never would have willingly gotten into a car with a strange man. "I know Liz, she would never have got into a car without knowing who they were. I know she wouldn't because she was my friend. And we used to talk about things like that. We were always terrified of anything like that." I pulled in near the supermarket and said to my friend should I go back and see if everything is alright and my friend advised me to go home as we might be sticking our noses into something that didn't concern us - David James McDonald, witness. Elizabeth is missing A few minutes after Elizabeth left McDaniel's pub in Brittas Bay, her boyfriend Damien went looking for her. He had his sister, Mella check the bathroom, and when Elizabeth was nowhere to be found, he frantically began to search. The couple's friend Joe McCoy and his girlfriend Annette McLoughlin drove around Wicklow trying to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth. But it was too late because Shaw and Evans had already abducted Elizabeth and brought her to a nearby woodland to rape her and ultimately end her young life. Kathleen Nolan née Plunkett remembers the morning after her sister went missing, the doorbell rang while the family prepared Sunday lunch. Now, reader, this is private family information that has never before been made public - until now. A young woman Kathleen did not recognise was at the door asking for Elizabeth, Kathleen told her that she was away for the weekend. Elizabeth's mother knew something was off, but by the time she raced after the woman, she had disappeared. To hear what happened next, you really must stream. They both came down to the house, and started to tell my mam and Damien came in. He told her that they had a row and that Elizabeth said she was going home and we've searched for her and we cannot find her - Bernie Plunkett, sister. The search Damien checked the home of Elizabeth's older sister Joan and her husband Jimmy, but she wasn't there either. It was then he knew he had to tell the Plunkett family. Once the family learned of Elizabeth's disappearance, the search effort went into overdrive. But there is nothing like a mother's intuition, according to Kathleen and Bernie; their mother knew instantly that Elizabeth was dead. The Plunkett family's local garda station in Irishtown said they could not help until Elizabeth had been missing for 24 hours as she was over 21. But they were not going to wait that long and returned to Wicklow to search till dark. After 36 hours, Elizabeth's brothers Eddie and Thomas came from Cork to join the search. During that first week of searches, the country became gripped by the case. The civil defence, the guards, friends, neighbours, colleagues, everyone joined the search for Elizabeth. The podcast's proximity to the family allows the listener to fully come to grips with the terror and desperation they felt during the investigation as they recount the most traumatic moments of their lives. God, I just, held it in my arms and I just said, oh, please, let her be alive or let her, you know, please let us find her - Mella Bushe, friend Castletimon Woods A week after Elizabeth went missing, the gardaí launched a large-scale methodical search that took place on rough land near Castletimon woods. Down a laneway leading from the roadway into the forest Joe McCoy would make a discovery… A discovery that would suggest his friend Elizabeth had faced an unimaginable fate and was quite possibly no longer alive. I've left the tragic details out of this piece, so you'll have to stream the episode to find out more. It's desperation you feel. And you're confused. And you're like, no, who could, where could she have gone? You can't just disappear off the face of the earth. Somebody has to know…" - Bernie Plunkett, sister Close encounters While the Plunketts spent every waking hour looking for Elizabeth, her killers were still close by… Garda Nicky Crennan speaks to the series creators about a call he received a few hours after Elizabeth went missing. The owner of McDaniel's pub at that time also owned the nearby caravan park. He reported that two men were acting strangely in the park, and Garda Crennan responded to that call. He had no idea the men he was about to encounter had just murdered a young woman and were in the process of disposing of the evidence. The men were standing by a fire when the authorities arrived and told Garda Crennan they were drying their clothes. They gave the names John and Geoffrey Murphy from Fethard when questioned, which Garda Crennan instinctively wrote down. But, something did not add up for the officers, as despite looking completely different, the men said they were brothers. The second this bit of information was queried, the men suddenly decided they were "step-brothers". Evans and Shaw burned Elizabeth's white slacks and t-shirt in that field. News of Elizabeth's disappearance had not broken, so Garda Crennan told the men to stop trespassing and leave. But not even this encounter spooked the killers. Instead, they stayed in that caravan park until the next day robbing a few caravans before they left. They were doing bugger all, only trespassing and I suppose we told them they were on private property, you shouldn't be here - Garda Nicky Crennan If anyone has any information on John Shaw and Geoffrey Evans, the Plunkett family have asked that you contact the podcast makers through documentaries@
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Ian Bailey 'probably was 100% innocent' of Sophie Toscan du Plantier's murder, says film director
Film director Jim Sheridan has said that the late Ian Bailey 'probably was 100% innocent' of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork. The battered body of the French film producer (aged 39) was found near her holiday home in Toormore on the outskirts of Schull in West Cork on December 23, 2006. Mr Sheridan said he believes the case is a "double injustice". 'I feel Sophie's murderer has never been found, her death has never been avenged. A man who probably was 100% innocent has been castigated through life; he lived a horrible life and died a horrible death and has a horrible name," he told Newstalk Breakfast. 'I don't think he killed her and there's not a shred of evidence to say he did.' Mr Sheridan's new drama Re Creation, about the murder, recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Starring Colm Meaney, Aidan Gilles and Vicky Krieps, it imagines what could have unfolded if the unresolved murder had gone before a jury in Ireland. Ian Bailey, who died in January 2024 at the age of 66, was the self-confessed chief suspect in the case. He was on two occasions detained by Gardaí for questioning in relation to the murder. Ian Bailey (pictured), who died in January 2024 at the age of 66, was the self-confessed chief suspect in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder case. File picture: Dan Linehan Mr Bailey was convicted in absentia after a trial in France in 2015. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. However, officials in France were unable to extradite him to Paris to serve the sentence handed down by the courts. Mr Sheridan said that Mr Bailey's conviction in Paris was a 'farce". He said that he 'of course' knew he risked causing upset to the family of Toscan du Plantier with his new drama. 'You can't say because you're upset that you can ruin another man's life,' he said. "There's no evidence.' Mr Sheridan acknowledged that Mr Bailey's history of violence with his former partner Jules Thomas was 'not good". He said that there was no doubt of the suffering experienced by the family of Ms Toscan du Plantier. However, Mr Sheridan stressed that the family of Mr Bailey have also suffered over the years. I'm sure Ian Bailey's sister was upset that there was nobody at his funeral and that he had to die in that ignominious way. I'm sure she's upset. Alain Spilliaert, a lawyer for Ms Toscan du Plantier's family, said he has not seen the film yet but has expressed concerned about its potential content. 'We feel that it is not relevant to show a fictional movie at this point of time of the criminal investigation. This is such a large, sensitive case in Ireland… and it's not finished.'
Sunday World
3 hours ago
- Sunday World
Man named locally after body recovered from canal
Peter Dinnegan died in the early hours of Sunday morning A man whose body was recovered from the banks of the Royal Canal in Mullingar on Sunday morning has been named locally as Peter Dinnegan. Emergency services discovered the 55-year-old after they were called to the scene just after 6am. Stock photo Today's News in 90 Seconds - 09 June 2025 Gardaí are awaiting the results of a post-mortem which they say will determine the course of their investigation. 'Gardaí were alerted to the discovery of a body in the Royal Canal, Mulingar, shortly after 6am on Sunday 08th June 2025,' a spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said. 'The deceased male was recovered from the canal by the Fire Service. 'His body has been transferred to the morgue, where a post-mortem examination will take place in due course. The results of the examination will determine the course of the Garda investigation. 'Investigations are ongoing.' Funeral details are yet to be announced.
