Judges don’t impose mandatory sentences, and proper order too. The whole idea that each conviction has the same weight despite wildly different circumstances – offence and offender – can’t be sustained. Generally those caught red handed are minnows in the whole thing, often addicts themselves, who owe money to the big boys. Locking these guys up for 10 years isn’t going to achieve much.

This is without even getting into the separation of powers, the proper roles of the judiciary and the legislature, never mind Micheál McDowell’s populist grandstanding.

Minnows??? With €750k worth of drugs!!!! Get real will you. Think of how many lives €750k worth of drugs would mess up. The message needs to be clear – if you are part of the chain in supplying drugs, you will be dealt with by the full force of the law.

I kno drugs importation will never end…today sum1 is been caught but i bet more have gone thru already…the government need money…tax all drugs and sell it at high price…it will stop the murders,gun crime etc etc and the state make money….regulation on drugs is the way forward…cos this war is been going on for years and the criminals are winning…..

Guessing that you haven’t read very many Central Criminal Court / Court of Criminal Appeal Judgments under Section 11A. Because I have, and they do tend to be minnows, the real players aren’t normally caught in the same area code as a seizure.

The mandatory sentence of ten years is supposed to kick in at €10,000 worth of drugs. Someone who’s caught with €750k is going to be looking at significantly longer. This is about mandatory minimums sentencing in general, not this particular seizure.

The point is that mandatory sentencing is a a nonsense. It’s not the role of the legislature to fix a sentence for some hypothetical offence, it’s for a judge to fix a sentence in a real case having heard the evidence.

Its only usefulness was to Mr. McDowell, whose “tough on crime” posturing, aided and abetted by his friends in the newspapers, barely masked the fact that he, and his party, were ideologically only too keen to facilitate the kind of massive fraud we’ve seen in Anglo and elsewhere. Pretty sickening to look back on this now:

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/mandatory-minimum-sentences-are-a-battle-cry-that-will-win-the-crime-war-128405.html

750k worth of drugs wouldn be left in the hands of minnows or a drug addict. Just cause a defense barrister is stating that his client is an addict/fell on hard times/not a big player doesn’t mean it’s true.

That’s not what I’m saying, Cormac.

I’m making the point that mandatory sentences are a political ploy, not a practical tool or deterrent. It’s likely that the suspect in this case will be sentenced to significantly longer than 10 years, irrespective of whether there’s a “mandatory” sentencing scheme in place. The problems arise in less serious cases.

And, if the Court is convinced that someone is a small-time addict or acting under duress, having heard both the State and the defence, that doesn’t mean it’s true either … but there’s a good chance that it is. There’s a remarkable consistency across the Section 11A judgments that I’ve read.

Plus, I can’t remember the last time one of the leaders of a major drugs gang was caught red-handed with drugs, it just doesn’t happen – the ones handling “shipments” are generally disposable.

Don’t be stupid …

Ah yes, that’s exactly what we need in this country… Executions…
It’s great to see that some of us have the good of the country in mind…

As for you….dear oh dear.

I think your right “firing squad and no tax payers bill”