Tuam Gardai catch local Polish cocaine courier in sting operation

A GREETING card packed with over €5,000 worth of cocaine and destined for a Tuam address was intercepted by Customs officers at Shannon Airport and its recipient arrested in a follow-up Garda sting. Polish national, Tomasz Rokowski (29), with a rental address at 92 Cois na hAbhainn, Tuam, pleaded guilty before Galway Circuit Criminal Court last week to having cocaine for supply to another at Deerpark Industrial Estate, Oranmore, on August 23, 2010. Garda Alan Sheeran told the sentencing hearing that Customs officials intercepted an envelope containing a greetings card, which had been packed with 76.38 grams of cocaine with a street value of €5,371, at Shannon Airport on August 20, 2010. [private] A controlled delivery was attempted at the Tuam address on the envelope where the accused lived at the time but nobody was home.  Gardai rang Rokowski, purporting to be DHL staff and arranged for him to collect the envelope at the DHL depot in Oranmore. Rokowski arrived at the depot on August 23 driving a silver BMW and signed for the package.  He was intercepted moments later as he got back into his car with the package and was arrested. En route to the Garda Station he admitted he knew the envelope contained drugs but he claimed he was simply collecting the package for people and was to pass it on later that evening to Lithuanians living in Castlerea, whom he refused to name. Garda Sheeran said that while Rokowski was naive enough to be used as a guinea pig by the people he was involved with, he believed himself that the drugs were destined for sale or supply around Tuam. The cocaine, he said, originated in Peru.  Rokowski had been to Peru a few years beforehand and had connections there. Garda Sheeran said Rokowski had been living in Tuam for four to five years and was known to Gardai there.  He never held a steady job, preferring to work for cash in hand while claiming social welfare benefits. He said the accused was single, lived in the Polish community in Tuam and had 15 previous convictions for motoring and public order offences. 'He's been like a ghost around Tuam since this offence,' he added. Reading a probation report handed into Court, Judge Raymond Groarke said the probation officer noted Rokowski had displayed a 'nonchalant' attitude to his offending. 'I find it astonishing that he is not prepared to acknowledge that drug use is a curse on society even though he realises he will be getting a prison sentence,' the judge said. Holding that Rokowski was 'an important link in the importation process', Judge Groarke sentenced him to three years in prison. He suspended the final year on condition that on his release he come under the supervision of the probation service and not reoffend for three years. Seconds after sentence was passed two tall, heavyset men, one Romanian and the other Polish, were caught filming the court proceedings on their mobile phones from the public area at the back of the courtroom.  They said they were filming the sentencing hearing out of curiosity and for no other reason. Judge Groarke agreed to let them go with a warning after ordering the confiscation of their phones for Garda examination. [/private]