A man who delivered 14.5kg of cannabis worth €290,000 to a house in Dublin has been jailed for three years, the Irish Mirror reported on 4 November 2026.

Matthew Jenkinson, aged 27, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis for sale or supply at St Ignatius Road, Drumcondra, on 3 June 2024. The case was heard in Dublin before Judge Martin Nolan.

What the court heard

Garda Philip Lavery told the court that a house on St Ignatius Road was searched because of concerns that cannabis was being sold from it. Officers found the drugs in a large black suitcase. A co-accused took ownership of the suitcase.

Gardai also seized a hard drive containing CCTV footage. It showed a white Ford Focus arriving at the property earlier that day, and Jenkinson getting out and carrying the suitcase inside. The co-accused has already been dealt with by the courts and was jailed for two years and nine months.

When interviewed by gardai, Jenkinson made no admissions about the drugs but accepted that he owned the van. He has no relevant previous convictions. Garda Lavery said that in his view Jenkinson was “more culpable” than the co-accused, because the footage showed he sought out the property and brought the cannabis there.

Mitigation and sentence

Michael Bowman SC, defending, said his client knew a custodial sentence was inevitable and took complete responsibility. The court heard that no drugs or paraphernalia were found when Jenkinson’s home was searched, and that he has not come to garda attention in the last two years.

Mr Bowman said Jenkinson had developed addiction problems at a young age and has completed a drug rehabilitation programme. He told the court that urine tests were clean, that the probation report was positive and that Jenkinson was assessed as being at low risk of reoffending. Jenkinson works as an electrician, his family attended court to support him, and he has an offer of work on release.

The defence said Jenkinson had a drug debt of around €10,000 and that when he tried to pay it he was told there were “better ways of getting the full value from you”. Mr Bowman said such debts are often set beyond a person’s ability to pay, which puts them and their families at risk.

Judge Nolan said the court’s view was that Jenkinson was “coerced” into carrying the drugs, but that this was “not legal coercion as he was the author of his own misfortune”. He said the early guilty plea allowed the court to depart from the presumptive mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, and imposed three years.

Why it matters to UK readers

The case is from the Republic of Ireland, where sentencing rules differ from those in the UK. In the UK, cannabis is a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The case is a reminder of how drug debts are used in the supply of cannabis, an issue that is also raised in British courts.