The Special Criminal Court has heard Tralee business man Nathan McDonnell was an important cog in the operation to store and export half a tonne of crystal meth from Ireland to Australia.
44-year-old McDonnell of Ballyroe, Tralee, had pleaded guilty to two charges in October connected with the seizure of 540kg of meth at Cork Port in February 2024.
He admitted to the importation of the drugs into Cork Port in October 2023, and facilitating the activities of a criminal organisation between October 2023 and February 2024.
During his sentencing hearing, the Special Criminal Court was told of links between a transnational organised crime group based in Kerry, with the notorious Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico.
It was this Kerry-based organised crime group, the state has submitted, that McDonnell assisted by storing and then arranging to export the drugs.
Under direction from Senior Counsel for the prosecution John Berry, Detective Sergeant Dave Howard agreed that the seizure of crystal meth in Cork in February 2024 had resulted from a year-long investigation into a transnational organised crime group based in Kerry.
Sub-machine guns, also seized last February, are still subject to ballistic analysis.
This organised crime group has connections with the notorious Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, which Sgt Howard said is one of the biggest drug cartels in the world.
Gardaí gained access to this local gang’s encrypted communications network after phones and SIM cards were seized from a property in the summer of 2023.
The head of this Kerry-based criminal gang was described in court as a named individual, but this person was later named as Mr McDonnell’s co-accused James Leen by Senior Counsel for the defence, Michael Bowman, on more than one occasion.
Mr Leen will stand trial in October on five charges, including the allegation he directed the activities of a criminal organisation within Ireland for a 12-month period – his legal team has previously indicated he will contest all charges.
Evidence during Nathan McDonnell’s sentencing hearing described how initially, the Kerry-based criminal gang explored a number of options in how to import this 540kg of meth into Ireland, before eventually using Mr McDonnell and the garden centre he ran at Ballyseedy – this was proven by the use of a Ballyseedy email address to directly communicate with a member of this gang.
The court was told McDonnell was a late reserve or substitute used by the gang to traffic the drugs, after other options fell through.
Mr McDonnell paid the shipping charge allowing the machine containing the drugs to proceed through Customs in Cork Port and on to Ballyseedy Garden Centre, where it was observed on CCTV until February.
The court heard new details about this machine designed to conceal the drugs, including that it had no on/off switch and could not have been used for its supposed purpose, and authorities needed angle grinders and chemical torches to cut it open upon its seizure.
The seizure of the machine and concealed drugs led to the arrest of McDonnell, who initially told gardaí that bringing the machine to Ballyseedy was a normal business transaction and denied any wrongdoing.
McDonnell admitted in later interviews he had acted recklessly, intimidated by and in fear of this named individual who had applied heavy pressure on him to store the machine and then export it to Australia.
Gardaí agreed that his fear of this individual was justified.
McDonnell also sourced a shipping destination for the machine in Australia to get it past customs without suspicion, and he created a false invoice as part of the process to export it to Australia.
His defence submitted McDonnell had not used any encrypted or burner phones, had been as co-operative as possible with gardaí in later interviews, and that the single biggest mitigating factor was his guilty plea indicated in the district court.
The court also heard of the impact of this case on his family, including on his children, and members of his family were present in court.
He will be sentenced on the two charges at the end of the month.
