A POLISH MAN has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for transporting over €1.5 million worth of cannabis.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Revenue officials were informed of goods being transported from Malaga in Spain to Ireland. The goods were intercepted and had a delivery address to a company called John Walsh Cleaning in the Duleek Business park. 

The court heard there is no such company at that address and the goods which were contained in their pallets were intercepted. 

Boguslaw Sajor (34) of Timahoe, Co Kildare arrived in a Mercedes Sprinter van to collect the pallets. Gardaí observed and followed the van and pulled it over on the N7. 

Detective Garda Gary Folan told Fiona Crawford, BL, prosecuting, that gardaí obtained three search warrants to search both the residential and business addresses of Sajor.

When his home was searched a small amount of cannabis was found along with weighing scales, and a tracking device was seized. 

The court heard that three mobile phones were found in the van and one mobile phone had an encrypted app which contained one message thread which had messages referring to “35 greens” which the court was told referred to 35 grams of cannabis. Instructions on how to divide up the drugs were also seen on the message thread. 

Detective Garda Folan said after searching the three pallets €692,000 worth of cannabis herb was found and €900,000 worth of cannabis resin was found. The total amount of drugs was €1,592,000. 

Sajor has previous convictions which were not read out in court. He pleaded guilty to one count of possession of drugs for sale or supply in 18 July 2022 and pleaded guilty today to one further count of possession of a mobile phone with an encrypted application. 

Michael Bowman, SC, defending, said his client was acting on the instructions of others but he did know he was doing something that she shouldn’t. He also said that Sajor said, “If I don’t take these pallets I will be in trouble”.

“I will go to jail, they will stay out. I can’t do anything for my family now, I can’t protect my family,” he told gardaí.

The accused is the father of three children and his partner was present in court today. Letters of testimony were handed into court from his partner, his brother-in-law and a long-term friend.

Judge Martin Nolan said a custodial sentence was necessary.

Taking the mitigating factors such as his guilty plea, and his cooperation with gardaí he sentenced him to seven and a half years in prison with credit given for time already served on this matter.