Former Cavan top cop jailed over cannabis seizure
John Murphy (62) served as Superintendent in Cavan in 2005.
A retired Cavan Garda Superintendent has been jailed for six and a half years for possession of cannabis worth more than a quarter of a million euros.
John Murphy (62) from Clontarf in Dublin pleaded guilty to the charge after drugs were found in his home and car during a search carried out by gardaí in September 2021.
Mr Murphy served as Superintendent in Cavan in 2005, having served in the detective branch in Dublin for much of his career.
He later moved to traffic corp at Dublin Castle, before becoming district commander at Bridewell in 2008.
One of the garda's youngest superintendents at the time, he retired from the force in 2010 age 50 having served on the force for 30 years.
He hails from a large family with a long history of involvement in State service.
His father was also a senior garda.
However, the court heard that at the time gardaí swooped and found drugs at his home, Murphy was in significant debt, owing more than €850,000 to a variety of people, including friends and family.
It was also noted by his defence counsel that Murphy was a functioning alcoholic, and his addiction had clouded his judgement.
A total of eight bags of cannabis herb were seized.
One bag was found by gardaí who searched a walk-in wardrobe in the upstairs master bedroom of Murphy’s home.
A further seven bags of cannabis were found stashed in a coal bunker located in the back garden.
More cannabis was found by officers in a bag in the back seat of Murphy's car.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, sitting before Judge Martin Nolan, was told that CCTV footage obtained showed Murphy arriving at a Meath industrial estate where he collected the bags of cannabis that were subsequently found at his home.
The nearly 13kg of cannabis was valued at just over €259,000.
Murphy took responsibility for the drugs.
He not only apologised for the distress, hurt and embarrassment this had caused to his family, but also to An Garda Síochána given his leading reputation as a high ranking member of the force.
It was claimed in mitigation that Murphy had had various business interests over the years, including investing in the region of €300,000 in taxi plates, which were immediately deregulated. His investment was worthless and as a consequence the defendant had to remortgage his home.
He owed a further €129,000 to friends and family, including €29,000 borrowed from one of his sons, as well as €10,000 from one of his brothers.
Judge Nolan said Murphy should have known better than to involve himself in such an enterprise.
He jailed him for six and a half years, backdated to when Murphy first went into custody in October 2021.