Northern Ireland

Portuguese man (52) admits to smuggling cocaine into north

A Portuguese national has pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine into the north
A Portuguese national has pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine into the north A Portuguese national has pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine into the north

A PORTUGUESE national has admitted to smuggling cocaine into Northern Ireland last year.

Appearing before Belfast Crown Court yesterday, Mario Orlando Dacruz pleaded guilty to illegally importing the Class A drug in July 2018.

The 52-year-old, with an address at Rua Armando Lucena in Lisbon, also pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

However, he pleaded not guilty through an interpreter to a charge of possessing cocaine.

The prosecution asked Belfast Recorder Judge David McFarland if the court would leave the charge of simple possession on the books.

Dacruz was stopped at George Belfast City Airport last July on an inbound flight.

The court heard he was found with 300 grammes of cocaine divided into 35 packages.

The prosecutor told the judge that Dacruz had no criminal record either in Northern Ireland or Portugal.

Judge McFarland ordered a pre-sentence report to be compiled by the Probation Service ahead of sentencing next month and remanded Dacruz back into custody.

A defence lawyer told the court that there was an application from the Home Office to have Dacruz deported back to Portugal after his sentence was completed.