A 30-year-old American woman who brought over €460,000 of cannabis into Dublin Airport just before Christmas told gardaí she wasn't fully aware of what was in her suitcases.
Adrianne St Clair, of Denker Avenue, Los Angeles, has been in custody since December 22nd, when a customs sniffer dog detected over 22kg of drugs in her luggage on arrival from the US.
She had been due to travel onward to London's Gatwick Airport, where she told her counsel she understood she would be working as a masseuse in a corporate setting for several days.
St Clair told gardaí she had been asked by a former schoolmate to carry two large suitcases containing clothing to London, for which she was due to be paid €5,000.
Asked by gardaí if she had been aware there might be something illegal in the suitcases, St Clair replied: “I was aware it could be.”
Michael Bowman SC, defending, described St Clair as “naive and vulnerable” and said her deep-seated Christian faith compelled her to take the best view of others and believe that nobody would take advantage of her.
At a hearing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, Judge Martin Nolan said St Clair “must have suspected” that there were illicit substances in her luggage.
“She was enduring some financial distress; an opportunity was placed before her, and she succumbed to temptation,” Judge Nolan said.
He added: “Obviously, she didn't want to believe it, but it would be nonsensical to think she didn't believe there were some illicit substances in her baggage.”
St Clair came forward on signed pleas from the District Court and admitted possessing €460,880 worth of cannabis on the date in question.
She has no previous convictions in Ireland or abroad.
Seizure
Garda James Connor told Joe Barnes BL, prosecuting, that a customs sniffer dog intercepted the two large suitcases and that St Clair cooperated fully with the Garda investigation.
When asked by Judge Nolan if it was “unusual” to find such large amounts of cannabis coming through the airport, Gda Connors replied that it was a recent trend over the past few months.
The court heard St Clair told gardaí it was “scary” travelling on her own, but that she was looking forward to doing some shopping in London.
She said she did not know what was in the suitcases and that the only reason she had brought them was because a woman with whom she went to school had asked her.
The court heard that this acquaintance booked her flights and sent a driver to collect her for the airport in Los Angeles.
On the day of her flight, St Clair dropped her five-year-old daughter to school, relaxed at home, picked up her daughter later and did her homework with her, and then was collected by a driver whom she did not know.
The luggage was already in the car, the court heard.
Gda Connor agreed with the prosecution that they were not “dealing with a criminal mastermind”.
The Garda also agreed with Mr Bowman, defending, that St Claire came from a deeply religious, decent, hard-working family, none of whom had ever been in trouble before.
Financial difficulty
St Clair's mother, who travelled to Ireland to support her daughter, took the stand and told the court that her family were part of the Church of the Harvest Gathering.
Mrs St Clair said her daughter's car had been stolen, and she found herself in a difficult financial situation as a single mother of a young child.
The court heard that members of the family's church community are praying that God will guide St Clair through this difficult situation and are praying for her.
Multiple letters were handed in from family and friends testifying to St Clair's good character and strong Christian faith, including one from her church pastor asking the court for mercy.
St Clair herself wrote a letter to the court apologising and setting out her personal circumstances and church background.
“I was taken advantage of; my vulnerability was taken for granted,” St Clair said, explaining that she has never been away from her daughter before and finds it particularly challenging to share a prison cell with three others.
Judge Nolan accepted that serving time in an Irish prison, with no connections in this country, is very lonely for a foreign national.
He said St Clair had a very good work history, a very impressive range of testimonials, and was unlikely to reoffend.
“It seems this was a one-off incident,” Judge Nolan said, setting a headline sentence of six or seven years.
He said St Clair's culpability was one of “recklessness rather than actual knowledge” and sentenced her to three and a half years in prison, backdated to when she went into custody on December 22nd.
