Dundalk Court: Man jailed for cultivating cannabis plants in growhouse

A Lithuanian national who was extradited from Iceland to face charges over a cannabis growhouse in north Louth, was last week sentenced to two years and five months at Dundalk Circuit Court.

Mantas Telvikas (42) had pleaded guilty to a charge of cultivating cannabis plants at his then address, at Rassan, Hackballscross on June 9th 2017.

Gardai who arrived at the property to execute a search warrant, got a strong smell of cannabis as they arrived at the house. The blinds were pulled and roof lights were blacked out.

The defendant was found hiding in a bathroom attempting to break up two mobile phones.

Ninety two fully mature cannabis plants were found in the grow house operation upstairs.

A quantity of cannabis herb was also recovered and the total street value of the drugs seized was over €87,000.

The defendant had no previous convictions in this jurisdiction and was living in the property and told gardai he had been met at the airport, was brought to the house and was shown what to do and within two days the people who showed him, moved out.

Judge Dara Hayes said he accepted the defendant had the role of a gardener, rather than having a controlling hand in the operation and the landlord had been told by the person who leased the property, that the men staying there would be working in Dublin, to account for the different cast of characters that might be about the house. 

Judge Hayes imposed a sentence of two years and five months, which he backdated the sentence to May 9th last year, to reflect the time the defendant had spent in custody.