TWO Filipinos who were caught with a huge haul of Cocaine worth up to £6 million at Moneypoint in the Shannon estuary on August 14th last were each sentenced to eight years imprisonment at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.
Judge Kevin O'Higgins said they had been involved in a filthy, Iife-destroying trade. If he thought they were major players they would have got life sentences, he said.
Det Insp P. Mulvey of the National Drugs Unit said the haul was the largest to date. He added that the haul was worth between £3 million and £6 million.
The judge congratulated the gardai and Customs officers. He accepted that the two defendants, Renaldo Fernaades (31), and Danilo Mka (45), both married with families in the Philippines, were small operators in a dirty regime.
The judge said he would suspend the last two years of their sentence and back-dated them to August last. He recommended that provision for telephone communication with their families be made. He also ordered the destruction of the drugs.
