Trio who kept watch over €4m of cocaine in container in Cork while under garda surveillance jailed
Donatel Dodaj was sentenced to nine years with the last year suspended. Picture; Eddie O'Hare
A drugs gang keeping a container under surveillance for days in Cork were themselves under garda surveillance and as soon as they made their move to access over €4m worth of drugs they were nabbed. On Friday they were jailed for eight years.
Judge Jonathan Dunphy said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the trio were clearly at a level of trust in the distribution of this large quantity of drugs.
Donatel Dodaj, 22, was sentenced to nine years with the last year suspended. The judge took into consideration his signed plea of guilty, the absence of any previous convictions, the fact that he had a €60,000 debt from a loan shark in Albania, and co-operated with the investigation, and showed genuine remorse and shame for his actions.
Daniel Afedoaei, 30, got a nine-and-a-half year sentence with the last 18 months suspended. However, his eight-year prison term will only commence at the end of the four years he is serving since November 2023 for a separate crime of money-laundering in Athlone in respect of €160,000 cash. The same mitigating factors were taken into consideration in his case. The judge noted that none of the accused had a drug addiction.
Finally Gentjan Dodaj, 39, was given a nine-year sentence with the last year suspended. The judge took into consideration similar mitigating factors in his case, including the fact that he had no previous convictions.
Detective Garda Gavin Curran of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that detectives had the trio under surveillance from the time they came to Cork in early August 2023 to collect the drugs.
Det. Garda Curran outlined the background to the case after the Dodaj brothers, Albanians from Paradise Row, Athlone, Co Westmeath, and Romanian Afedoaei of Sli an Aifreann, Athlone, Co Westmeath, pleaded guilty to possessing €4.2 million of cocaine for sale or supply on August 5, 2023.
On foot of confidential information officers from the GNDOCB travelled to the Port of Cork’s container terminal at the deepwater berth in Ringaskiddy where they identified a refrigerated shipping container as one that they suspected contained drugs.
Gardaí examined the container and found it contained 60 kilos of cocaine in 1kg packs hidden behind refrigerated panelling and they found that two Apple Airtag tracking devices had been embedded in two of the 1kg packs of cocaine before they put the drugs back as they had found them.
Officers were keeping the container under surveillance when the three accused, who had driven down from Athlone in a car and a van, arrived in Ringaskiddy on August 3 and began putting the container with the drugs under surveillance, meaning gardaí now had both the gang and the drugs under surveillance.
Gardaí watched the gang as they in turn watched the container being collected by a haulier who brought the container legitimately to a premises on the Kinsale Road in Cork where its declared cargo was unpacked before the haulier brought the unloaded container back to his yard, with the concealed drugs cargo still uncollected by the gang.
Wearing ski masks and carrying tools in the back of their own van, they entered the haulier’s yard around 2am on August 5 and gained access to the container where they used the tools to remove the panelling and get the drugs which they were planning to bring back to Athlone.
The entire operation was captured on CCTV and gardaí, who had been keeping the gang under surveillance as they went to collect the drugs, moved in and arrested the three accused at Dunkettle just as they were heading back up to Athlone with the drugs.
Det. Garda Curran said that Gentjan Dodaj had co-operated with gardaí at interview but had not identified who it was that he was collecting the drugs for. And both Donatel Dodaj and Afedoaei had similarly admitted their involvement but again refused to say who was behind the operation.
He said neither of the Dodajs had any previous convictions but Afedoaei had a previous conviction for money-laundering after he was caught with €160,00 in Auburn Village in Athlone on April 2, 2021, and he was subsequently sentenced on November 4, 2023, to four years for the offence.
Defence counsel, Tom Creed SC, pleaded for leniency for Gentjan Dodaj saying that he had come to Ireland in 2006 and had a young family in Athlone and only got involved in collecting the drugs after he ran up debts to family and friends when setting up a car valeting business.
Mr Creed said that Gentjan Dodaj was deeply “remorseful and ashamed” of his involvement in the crime and he believed that there was little chance of him ever re-offending. Det. Garda Curran said he didn’t believe he would appear before the courts again.
Defence counsels, Ray Boland SC for Donatel Dodaj (22) and Jane Hyland SC for Afedoaei, also pleaded for leniency for their clients pointing out that they, like Gentjan Dodaj, had both indicated that they would be pleading guilty at an early stage thus sparing the State the expense of a trial.
Det. Garda Curran agreed and told the court that Donatel Dodaj said he had become involved to pay off a €60,000 debt to a criminal back in Albania and Afadoaei was trying to pay off €50,000 to a criminal after he lost €160,000 of another criminal’s money which he was caught laundering.
