Hurler who disappeared after €2.5m drugs bust is 'alive and well.
A FORMER Dublin minor hurler who disappeared after a massive €2.5million drugs bust is “alive and well”, a source has revealed.
There were major fears for the saftey of Patrick Casey (26) after he went missing after the huge haul of cannabis was seized in Coolock on the city’s northside in March.
The drugs were believed to have been owned by the gang controlled by the new ‘Mr Big’ of organised crime.
The mob boss, who is in his 30s, is suspected of ordering the execution of slain RIRA chief Alan Ryan.
Gardai are still looking to speak to Casey to see if he has any information about the drug seizure.
It is believed he was spotted in a car leaving the scene of the drugs bust in Raheny, but was not picked up by cops.
Following the raid, Casey is believed to have gone missing and there were serious fears for he had been lured to his death.
However, a senior source has revealed that there are hopes now that he might be safe.
“It was believed that he might be in serious danger, but there is a belief now that he is alive and well.”
Casey, from Casino Park in Marino, was one of the most talented underage hurlers in Dublin before he became involved in the drugs trade.
He played for Dublin’s underage teams with some of the county’s biggest stars – including Johnny McCaffrey and Joey Boland – as well as playing soccer for Shelbourne.
However, his sporting career came to an abrupt end when he was nabbed with €44,000 worth of cannabis resin.
In 2007 he was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of drugs for sale or supply. The sentence was halved on appeal.
Garda Daniel Prenty told the court that a holdall bag containing the cannabis was found in undergrowth next to a railway on August 31, 2006.
When Casey’s social security card was found in a pocket in the bag, a warrant was obtained to search a house he was associated with.
Casey took full responsibility straight away and told gardai that he believed the drugs were worth €10,000.
He claimed they were for his own personal use and said he had no intention of selling them, nor was he holding them for someone else.
The court heard that the gardai were satisfied that Casey, who had just lost his job and was under financial pressure at the time due to payments on a bank loan, was holding the drugs for somebody else and had been promised €1,000.
Judge Katherine Delahunt suspended the last two years of the eight-year sentence after taking into consideration that Casey had accepted responsibility for the drugs and fully co-operated with the Garda investigation.
“You were a talented athlete and may have gone on to bigger and better things, but unfortunately your involvement in this crime has brought an end to that,” she told Casey.
In 2008, the three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that sentence to be unduly severe and reduced it from a total of six years to three.
Counsel for Casey had argued that the judge had erred by not taking into account circumstances, including that his client was a young man with no previous convictions who had acted naively. He had also fully co-operated with the gardai.
On March 7, more than 98kg of the drug was discovered by officers when they carried out planned searches at a number of houses on Tonlegee Road, in Coolock.
Then, in a follow up search of a car, a further 21kg was seized.
Brendan Mangan, a 42-year-old security officer, has been charged in connection with the seizure.
