Five year sentence for storing drugs, guns and ammo

A FATHER-of-two who stored almost €1m worth of assorted drugs and firearms at an apartment on the Ennis Road was sentenced to five years imprisonment.

John Ryan, aged 46, with an address at Airfield Terrace, St Patrick’s Road admitted storing the items for criminal elements in order to repay a gambling debt.

Limerick Circuit Court heard the defendant had never come to garda attention prior to his arrest on May 14, 2011.

During a sentencing hearing, Judge Carroll Moran was told quantities of heroin, cocaine, cannabis and more than 4,000 MDMA tablets were recovered when gardai searched an apartment at Belfield House near the Strand Hotel.

A German-made Walther pistol, a revolver and 32 rounds of ammunition were also recovered.

Following his arrest, Ryan told gardai he had a €10,000 gambling debt and needed to get his hands on €5,000 immediately.

Imposing sentence, Judge Moran said Ryan had become “trapped in a situation he couldn’t escape from” and he described the amount of drugs involved was an aggravating factor in the case.

He added that the firearms on their own “constituted a real threat to society”.

A five year prison sentence was back-dated to the date Ryan pleaded guilty.