Limerick man left suitcase containing just under €600,000 worth of drugs on airport baggage carousel

A LIMERICK man who had a “crisis of conscience” and left his luggage on the carousel containing just under €600,000 of cannabis at Dublin Airport has been jailed for five years.

Lee Somers, aged 31, was stopped by custom officers after he returned to collect his luggage. He had just come off a flight from Canada and was due to travel onto Scotland.

Somers, of Greenfields, Rosbrien Road, Limerick, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis for sale or supply on March 2, 2024. He was found in possession of 29kg of cannabis, worth €597,000, at Dublin Airport.

Judge Martin Nolan had previously adjourned the case having heard some of the evidence, as Somers did not have legal representation at the time. He said due to the seriousness of the case he said it was important that Somers would be properly represented.

This Tuesday, Judge Nolan jailed Somers for five years.

He said the evidence suggested that Somers had “a crisis of conscience” and left his luggage having brought in the drugs from Toronto.

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Judge Nolan accepted that Somers was under “some level of duress” to transport the drugs but he said he was “a mature man and he made a very bad decision and a very bad misjudgement”.

He acknowledged that given the fact that he does not have many criminal convictions he is “probably unlikely to re-offend” before he imposed a five-year jail term.

The court previously heard that Somers arrived on a flight from Canada at 5am and was due to get to a connecting flight to Glasgow which was delayed.

He went to the public area and when he returned, he left the bags on a carousel. Somers told an air hostess he had bags and went to get them.

He was then stopped and said he was coming from Toronto. Somers was asked to place the bags on an x-ray machine. He told staff they were not his bags and he didn't pack them.

Somers told a staff member that he was supposed to continue to Glasgow, but he couldn't continue as “my conscience got the better of me”.

He said he'd been told to do this by a third party.  He said some people were threatening him, so he threatened them and then they threatened his mother.

He initially said he wasn't in debt and didn't take drugs, but later told gardai that he had a cocaine addiction.

A stamp from Thailand was also found in his passport from the previous month. He said he went there, but didn't have a good time. Somers said he wasn't working and his expenditure appeared to be high.

He later admitted that he went to Thailand as an observer “for reassurance for his future trip” – the one he was making to Toronto.

He said after coming back from Thailand he was told that he would have to go to Canada.

“I said if I could get someone else (to do the trip) I would be out,” Somers said. He acknowledged that he had planned a further trip to Thailand but said he had no intention of doing another trip to Thailand.

Somers had some District Court convictions including possession of cocaine from five months prior to his arrest.

Garrett McCormack SC, defending, said that Somers has two young children and his parents were in court to support him.

He handed in a letter of apology and asked the court to give Somers “some light at the end of the tunnel”.