A 30-year-old man has been jailed for six years after he was caught with almost € 350,000 worth of heroin.

The haul is believed to be the largest ever amount of the drug seized by gardaí in Cork.

Kevin Bulman, a native of Youghal but currently of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to possessing 2.5kgs of heroin for sale or supply at Patrick Street in Cork on November 5th 2019.

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Det Garda Paul Leahy of Cork City Divisional Drugs Unit told how gardaí mounted an operation after obtaining information that a large of heroin was to be moved from Dublin to Cork.

Detectives monitored Bulman travelling from Dublin to Cork on an Aircoach and they followed him after he left the Aircoach in Cork and went to Patrick Street to get into a taxi when gardaí stopped and arrested him.

Gardaí brought him to the Bridewell Garda station where they searched his rucksack and found a Dunnes Stores bag containing 10 packets of heroin amounting to a total of 2.5 kilos of the drug with a street value of €345,436.

Not chronic

Gardaí also found three mobile phones as well as some € 1,792 worth of cocaine concealed in Bulman’s jacket and while he initially did not engage with gardaí at interview, he later told them the cocaine was for his own use.

He told gardaí he had agreed to act as a courier bringing the heroin to Cork because of a drug debt and while he admitted he knew it was heroin, he claimed not to know the amount and had just been given the bag to deliver.

He also told them that he was given the cocaine for transporting the drugs to Cork and while gardaí accepted that Bulman was a heroin addict, they did not accept he was as chronic an addict as he claimed, said Det Gda Leahy.

Gardaí did not accept Bulman was under duress when he agreed to bring the heroin to Cork as he was unable to tell them the size of the debt he claimed he owed but they accepted the cocaine was payment for couriering the drugs.

Det Garda Leahy told the court that Bulman refused to give gardaí the access codes to his mobile phones which would have been of considerable assistance to gardaí investigating the supply of heroin in Cork city.

Bulman had a total of 52 previous convictions including three for simple possession of drugs but he had none for possessing drugs for sale or supply while he also had convictions for threatening to kill and assaults causing harm.

Assisted the State

Defence barrister, Peter O’Flynn BL pointed out that his client had assisted the State with his guilty plea and he asked the court to also take into account that he was an addict of many years as he pleaded for leniency.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said there was no underestimating the seriousness of the charge given the amount of heroin that Bulman had been caught with and his response upon arrest was equivocal at best.

He accepted that Bulman had a long standing addiction but he did question how serious the addiction was at the time he was given the drugs to bring to Cork for somebody else.

“It’s hard to think that somebody so addled with drugs would be entrusted with €350,000 worth of heroin,” said Judge O Donnabhain, adding that he believed his guilty plea was a significant mitigating factor.

He said that he believed in all the circumstances, the appropriate sentence was one of eight years but he would suspend the final two years in the light of Bulman’s guilty plea, leaving him with six years to serve

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