A Mayo woman found with €62,000 of cannabis herb told gardaí she was holding the drugs under duress because of a drug debt.
Bernadette Muldoon (40), of St Patrick’s estate, Ballina, pleaded guilty to possessing the drugs for sale or supply at a different address in the same estate on June 7, last year.
The court heard that in recent days, Muldoon’s house was damaged and her windows broken, which she felt was connected to this matter.
She told gardaí she was afraid to leave the house and had to get a taxi to Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court for the sentence hearing.
Garda Oisin McDonagh told Patrick Reynolds BL, prosecuting, that gardaí searched a house on the estate following a tip-off.
A man standing at the kitchen door when gardaí arrived jumped over a wall and fled the building, the court heard.
Gardaí found the cannabis herb in plastic bags and in a protein tub inside a press in the utility room.
It had an estimated street value of €62,000.
Later that day, Muldoon presented herself at Ballina Garda Station and took ownership of the drugs.
She said she had left the property where the cannabis was found the previous evening, as she had been on cocaine and was paranoid that gardaí were after her.
Muldoon has 10 previous convictions, one for theft and the remainder for road traffic matters.
She told gardaí she was a single mother, unemployed, addicted to crack cocaine and previously heroin.
Muldoon said she was a “serious, heavy user” of cocaine and took it every day.
Gda McDonagh agreed with Laura Byrne BL, defending, that it was not a sophisticated drug operation and that Muldoon was at the lower tier.
The garda also agreed that Muldoon was under a certain amount of duress to hold the drugs and had a drug debt of €3,000.
Judge Eoin Garavan adjourned sentencing to next February to give Muldoon an opportunity to engage with probation services and begin to address her addiction.