"Inept" drug couriers jailed for four years

Two first-time drug couriers from Athlone who abandoned €245,000 worth of drugs and spent a day and a half walking from Kildare to Connolly Station were sentenced to four years in prison at Mullingar Circuit Court last week. Jason Bertles (31), Iona Villas, Athlone, and William 'Tom' Quinn (27), Brawny Square, Athlone, were asked to collect a package and return to Athlone on May 11, 2007. Both men were to be paid €500 to collect what they believed to be a few kilos of cannabis. The package was later found to contain 25 kilos of cannabis and one kilo of cocaine. The men set off with Quinn using his own car and Bertles using his own mobile to arrange a meeting with a man in Johnstownbridge, Enfield, Co. Kildare. However, before the pair arrived in Johnstownbridge, Ballinasloe-based Detective John Costello noticed the pair acting suspiciously as he drove an unmarked squad car on the N6 Dublin-Galway motorway. He followed the men who, noticing the squad car, panicked and abandoned the vehicle and Mr. Quinn's keys at Dunfierth Park housing estate in Johnstownbridge. The pair then took off through fields and then walked the railway line to Connolly Station in Dublin. Gardaí later searched the vehicle and discovered the drugs in the boot of the car. Gardaí in Athlone were able to identify the two men from Det Costello's description. When the two men arrived in Dublin they made contact with the man who had sent them to collect the drugs. He drove to Dublin and brought the men to one of their relative's homes in Ennis, Co. Clare where he gave each of them €1,000. From there the pair fled to London but quickly ran out of money and decided to return home. Bertles was arrested during a Garda search of a house in Longford on May 20. His co-accused handed himself in to Gardaí the following day. Both men admitted to the offence and they told Gardaí they had collected the drugs from a man in a red transit van in Johnstownbridge shortly before abandoning their car. Bertles' defence counsel Ken Fogarty described the men's efforts as "ham-fisted" and said the pair had walked for a day and a half to Connolly with only three or four euro between them. "Their involvement in the drugs trade appears at best to be a ham-fisted effort," he told Judge Kennedy. According to Detective Aidan Lyons, the men were "total amateurs" who he believed had never been involved in the drugs trade before. Judge Anthony Kennedy agreed saying "the execution of their mission was hugely inept" and their "attempt at doing a runner is somewhat pathetic". He described the offence as out of character for the defendants and commended Detective Costello for his excellent police work.