Kamil Wlizlo: first Irish visit, a false-panel van and €618,850 of cannabis

Kamil Wlizlo owned a transport company in Poland and had no ties to Ireland. On his first visit, Customs found 37 packages of cannabis concealed behind newly fitted panels in his van. The €2,500 he expected to earn was never paid; the Irish court imposed five years in prison.

The final sentencing evidence identifies Wlizlo as a Polish national from Piekne, near Elk in Poland. He was 22, owned his own transport company, had no previous convictions and had never visited Ireland before. The reports say he had no connection to this jurisdiction and very limited English.

Those facts were treated as mitigation at sentence. They do not establish his immigration status, whether any later removal decision was made or where he is now. This file makes no such inference.

The route into Cork

Wlizlo told Gardaí that men approached him near Bordeaux and offered twice his normal delivery fee to take what he initially believed were cigarettes to Ireland. When he collected the load, he discovered it was cannabis. He proceeded with the journey knowing what he was carrying and expected a payment of €2,500.

His Polish-registered Volkswagen Crafter travelled from Roscoff aboard the Brittany Ferries vessel Armorique. He was its sole occupant. After disembarkation at Ringaskiddy Ferry Terminal on 9 March 2021, Customs officers selected the van during routine profiling.

Furniture occupied the rear of the vehicle, but officers noticed recently fitted panelling. They drilled into it, detected the smell of cannabis and removed the panels. Behind them were 37 packages. Wlizlo had been instructed to drive towards Dublin, where another vehicle would intercept him and remove the drugs.

The initial estimate was revised

Revenue's seizure-day release reported 90kg worth €1.8 million, while one early Irish Times report stated 97kg. Those were preliminary estimates published before the criminal case concluded.

The evidence reported at sentencing was 30.9kg with a street value of €618,850. That is the adjudicated figure used throughout this case file. The preliminary 90–97kg estimate and the final 30.9kg finding are not added together or presented as separate consignments.

Admission and sentence

Wlizlo was arrested and questioned at Togher Garda station. He initially maintained that he had expected cigarettes, but during his third interview admitted that he knew the load was cannabis. He cooperated, supplied the PIN for his telephone and entered an early guilty plea.

At Cork Circuit Criminal Court, he pleaded guilty to importing cannabis worth €618,850 into the State at Ringaskiddy, contrary to section 15B of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977. Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin set a seven-year starting point and departed from the statutory ten-year presumptive minimum because of the admissions, cooperation and early plea. On 24 June 2021, he imposed five years, backdated to 9 March.

The promised €2,500 was never paid. The court report records no previous convictions. No conviction or sentence appeal was found in the sources reviewed. Because the sentence was imposed in 2021 and the public record reviewed does not establish his release date or present location, this file does not describe Wlizlo as currently imprisoned.

Chronology

• Before 9 March 2021: approached near Bordeaux and agrees to carry a consignment to Ireland.
• 9 March 2021: arrives at Ringaskiddy from Roscoff; Customs finds 37 packages in false panels; arrest follows.
• 11 March 2021: charged, granted free legal aid and remanded with the assistance of a Polish interpreter.
• June 2021: enters an early guilty plea.
• 24 June 2021: sentenced to five years, backdated to the date of arrest.
• 31 July 2026: no reported appeal, confirmed release date or present-location record found in the sources reviewed.

Public-cost benchmark

A parliamentary answer gives the 2024 average annual cost of an available staffed prison space as €99,072. Applied mechanically to the five-year sentence imposed, that produces a gross sentence-length benchmark of €495,360.

This is not a case-specific bill and does not assert five full years were served. It does not account for remission, the backdating of the term, changes in annual prison costs or Wlizlo's actual placement. It also excludes the Customs and Garda operation, prosecution, interpreter, legal-aid and court costs. The Irish Prison Service annual report supplies system context; the Oireachtas answer supplies the benchmark used.

Sources

• Revenue, 10 March 2021 — official seizure-day estimate, routine profiling and detector-dog account.
• An Garda Síochána, 9 March 2021 — official arrest notice.
• The Irish Times, 24 June 2021 — final quantity, valuation, guilty plea and sentence.
• Irish Examiner, 25 June 2021 — concealment, admissions and sentence.
• BreakingNews.ie, 24 June 2021 — prior-history, mitigation and sentencing starting point.
• EchoLive.ie, 24 June 2021 — corroborating Cork court report.
• Irish Prison Service Annual Report 2024 — prison-system context.
• Oireachtas written answer, 20 May 2025 — staffed-space cost benchmark.

Record checked: 31 July 2026. No current-custody, release, appeal or immigration-status claim is made beyond what the cited record establishes.