Taxi driver distributed 'vast amounts of drugs'
A taxi driver who helped criminals distribute "vast amounts" of cocaine around the city had been remanded in custody pending sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Darrell Clarke (aged 31) was caught in a surveillance operation by gardaí with cocaine and ecstasy with a combined value of nearly half a million euro, as well as drug paraphernalia and mixing agents.
Clarke, of Whitestown Park, Blanchardstown, pleaded guilty to having possession of the drugs for sale or supply at various locations in Dublin on May 23, 2007.
Judge Katherine Delahunt remanded Clarke in custody until next month to allow her consider sentencing.
Detective Garda Gary Proudfoot told Mr Dominic McGinn BL, prosecuting, that gardaí acting on confidential information amounted a surveillance operation centred on the movements of Clarke.
Clarke was observed entering two houses on Whitestown Drive and then driving off in his taxi. He was stopped by gardaí on the Blanchardstown Road and cocaine with a street value of €31,913 was found under the passenger seat.
Det Gda Proudfoot said three houses on Whitestown Drive were searched and in one of them gardaí found cocaine with a street value of €441,588 and ecstasy in powder form with a street value of €6,500.
He said mixing agents, weighing scales, and other drug paraphernalia such as a hydraulic compressor, which was used to press the mixed powder to look like pure cocaine, were found in the kitchen of the same house.
Clarke told gardaí he was paid between €4,000 and €5,000 for picking up, mixing and dropping off each batch of drugs and that he had been doing it for six to eight months. He said he was not in charge and that he did not know who was involved.
Det Gda Proudfoot said Clarke, who has no previous convictions, was "involved in the distribution of vast amounts of cocaine around the Dublin area".
Defence counsel, Mr Conor Devally SC (with Ms Úna Ní Raifeartaigh BL), said Clarke had run up a "drug debt" abusing cocaine and had gone to Australia to try and beat the habit, but on his return to Ireland he had become deeper embroiled with people in the drugs trade "who found him useful".
He said Clarke feared for his families safety and had been given "a fairly decent hiding" at one stage. He said he had no trappings of wealth and had been spending the money on a "simple ordinary life" for his family who were not aware of the extent of his difficulties.
Mr Devally said there had been a "sea change" in Clarke since his arrest and he wished to study social work in order to use his experience to benefit others in danger of falling into similar circumstances.
