A small-time street dealer who claims he turned to drugs as a result of being prevented by his family from pursuing his “music and inventions” has been reprimanded by Judge Mark O’Connell for being “a very important part of the criminal operation” that keeps the drugs trade alive in Ireland.
51 year old Alan Smyth of 34 Harbour Point, Market Square, Longford appeared before Longford District Court on drug related charges arising from two separate dates last year.
Mr Smyth, who submitted a plea of guilty, was charged with possession of a controlled drug, namely cocaine, as well as possession for sale or supply.
The discovery of the drugs occurred on February 1 2025 as part of a planned search of the location – 34 Harbour Point – that was carried out by the Divisional Drug Unit.
Sergeant Enda Daly told the court, “During the course of the search, the defendant was present and found with eight x €100 individual deals of cocaine on his person – four were in his pocket and four in his wallet.”
“He was arrested under the misuse of drugs act and detained at Longford Garda Station where he admitted to his role in supplying cocaine at street level in Longford. He stated he uses cocaine and sells each bag for €100. The total was €800 of cocaine seized.”
The charge was brought by Garda David Conroy.
Courts: IPAS resident (29) appears before Longford District Court
A second charge against Mr Smyth arose following a search carried out by Gardaí after midnight on July 3 2025. The court heard that Gardaí had observed the defendant behaving in a suspicious manner at Harbour Point in Longford Town.
Upon being stopped and searched, Mr Smyth was found in possession of what was described in court as a small quantity of cocaine. “It was of nominal value, Judge, €10,” said Sgt Daly. “He admitted ownership and signed the Garda notebook to that effect.”
This charge was brought by Garda Louise Fleming.
The court was told Mr Smyth had no previous convictions relating to drugs, “only road traffic relating back to 2016.”
Courts: “You’ll be arrested!” Man barred from Longford town Main Street
Solicitor for the accused, Mr Diarmuid Quinn, said by way of mitigation that his client’s difficulty was that he was using drugs at the time and had fallen in with the wrong crowd.
Solr Quinn added, “It wasn’t huge quantities of drugs. In terms of the selling, he made admissions in interviews that he was selling to close friends. It wasn’t a huge enterprise but he did make full admissions in that regard.”
He added, “Similarly, in terms of being stopped by Garda Fleming, it was a nominal amount which he admitted was for his own personal use. He is someone that isn’t known to the court for these types of offences.”
Addressing the court directly, Mr Smyth said, “As I said to the guards that night, it was only once a month that I obtained a small quantity for myself for the weekend.”
“I would never have done it only for I was stopped by my family from doing my music and my inventions. I had no other choice.”
He added, “It was at this point Solr Quinn added, “He was feeding his own addiction” before being interrupted by his client, who remarked, “I don’t have an addiction judge, it was only once a week.”
Interjecting, Judge O’Connell remarked, “Mr Smyth, it’s a small amount but you’re a very very important part of the criminal operation that’s behind this. There’s thousands of people like you around Ireland and they’re extremely important to the Kinahans and the Hutches and all those people.”
“You might not think it, but you’re an extremely important part in their operation. Other parts of that operation involve punishment beatings, debt beatings, prostitution, child trafficking, all those things.”
Courts: ‘I’ll stick this into you’ Longford man threatened store manager with knife during robbery
In response to Judge O’Connell, Mr Smyth said it had only been “for a small period of time” however the Judge made it clear he would not be accepting this line of reasoning, telling the defendant, “A small amount of drugs for your own personal use, I’m sorry but that’s not good enough for me.”
When asked by the Judge if he was still in addiction, Mr Smyth replied he was not.
Prior to delivering his verdict, Judge O’Connell said, “We can go back on the probation reports and all of that but Mr Smyth you need to be punished for this. I’m going to impose a fine of €500 and I will give you 6 months to pay.”
