A man who flew €8.4m (£7.1m) worth of cocaine from France into the Republic of Ireland has been jailed for 11 years.
Former company director Tim Gilchrist, aged 56 from Mavis Bank, Newrath in County Waterford, was arrested with 120kg of the drug in his car after he landed a Cessna light aircraft at Abbeyshrule Aerodrome in County Longford on 4 August 2022.
The father of one claimed that he used the aircraft for “leisure flying” and had smuggled the drugs under duress after two men threatened to harm his daughter.
Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported that the court heard there were no customs officers at either the Dieppe aerodrome in France or at Abbeyshrule in Longford.
Defence counsel Michael O’ Higgins told the court it was “a complete open corridor” for smuggling, which Judge Keenan Johnson described as “extraordinary”.
Mr Justice Johnson called for significant security upgrades, including 24-hour checks, adding the country has been left “unacceptably exposed” to the importation of large quantities of drugs.
