“Drugs are a scourge on our society. The need to deter those tempted to engage in such criminal activity is well recognised.”
Two Co Antrim men caught in a covert plot to supply cocaine by an organised crime group today were handed suspended sentences.
Darren Jonathan Kelly (56), of Kinbayne Crescent and Dean John Cromie (28), of Kinbayne Avenue, both in Greenisland, had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess Class A drugs between October 22, 2020 and November 21, 2020.
Judge Laura Ievers KC imposed 20 month sentences on both defendants but suspended their terms for two years. Four other defendants will be sentenced in February 2026 over their leading roles in the drugs supply plot.
Belfast Crown Court heard that at 9 pm on Thursday, November 19, 2020, a Vauxhall Astra car was seized by police following a search under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It had been parked unlocked in a public yard behind Kinbayne Avenue, Greenisland. Bags of white powder suspected to be cocaine were uncovered.
The bags were later forensically examined and confirmed to be cocaine with a purity level of seven per cent.
A prosecution lawyer said the following day at 12.30 pm, one kilogram of cocaine with a purity of 60 per cent was uncovered in a hide in the fence line of the public yard.
Later that day six self-sealed bags containing 165 grams of cocaine with a purity of seven per cent were recovered from a Ford Mondeo car found unlocked in the yard. In total, around 1.5 kilograms of cocaine were recovered during the operation led by the National Crime Agency, working as part of the Paramilitary Crime Task Force (PCTF).
Police inquiries revealed the Astra was being used by Cromie but it was registered to his grandfather. The court heard the Mondeo had no registered owner but Kelly has since accepted he facilitated its use.
Prosecutors said there had been “significant investigative work” carried out by police agencies and a car belonging to a co-defendant, Glenn Burns, had been placed under surveillance.
“Audio recordings from October 2020 were pertinent to the case and the recordings in the police operation continued into November 2020 and revealed that Burns and Clifford Irons were leading members of an organised crime group which sourced the two vehicles and the hide,” said prosecutors.
“There were discussions around the value of the drugs and how the detection of the drugs would affect any future activity.”
The court heard Kelly and Cromie were knowingly involved in allowing their vehicles to be used with the storage of the cocaine and Kelly assisted in “keeping an eye on police activity”.
“The audio recordings tend to suggest that those involved in the operation stood to gain financially from it.”
However, defence lawyers for both Kelly and Cromie said they received no money from the drugs plot. They submitted that both defendants were at the lower end of the scale in the operation.
Kelly had become aware that others were using his Mondeo car for criminality but was told to “mind his own business” and regretted not informing police earlier of his suspicions.
Judge Ievers said the level of criminal activity in the cocaine supply operation must have involved “significant organisation and planning over time”.
“Drugs are a scourge on our society. The need to deter those tempted to engage in such criminal activity is well recognised.”
Judge Ievers said she was making a distinction between Cromie and Kelly’s criminality and that of their four co-defendants.
Imposing the suspended sentences, Judge Ievers added: “I take the view that each of you was aware of the nature of this conspiracy but you played a more limited role.
“I cannot be sure that you knew the extent of the activity but you provided vehicles to store the drugs and in your case Mr Kelly there was a level of police surveillance.”
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