Dealer caught after his fingerprints were found on cannabis dumped it in a ditch

Arvydas Steponkus (25) was also found with over €1,400 worth of cocaine in a boxing bag in his west Dublin home.

Judge Ciaran Liddy sentenced him to 10 months after hearing the second seizure was made within weeks of Steponkus receiving a suspended sentence. The judge also activated that sentence, giving him 20 months’ prison time.

Steponkus, a father-of-one of St Mark’s Avenue, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis and cocaine with intent to sell or supply

Blanchardstown District Court heard gardaí on surveillance in Buirg An Rí Glen, Lucan, on June 9, 2020, saw Steponkus placing a large bag in a ditch and walking away.

The package had €1,112 worth of cannabis in it, and the accused’s fingerprints on it.

On March 13 last year, gardaí searched Steponkus’s house and found cocaine worth €1,488 in a boxing bag.

The accused had 31 previous convictions and had been given a 10-month suspended sentence three weeks before the latest incident.

Steponkus’s family had come to Ireland from Lithuania when he was six, his solicitor Simon Fleming said.

He grew up in an environment where there was a high level of criminality, anti-social behaviour and drug use and he had followed others into that.

The accused’s father was serving a sentence for drugs possession.

Steponkus was throwing himself at the mercy of the court but he realised he had a bad record.

He had not been to prison before and understood the “impossible” position he had put the court in, Mr Fleming said.

The accused was working and wanted more than a life of criminality.

Judge Liddy said each seizure was of considerable value and warranted a prison sentence.