French national Khadym Sylla had nine different drugs for sale or supply in his Cork apartment, along with cannabis plants and €4,000 in cash. The sentencing judge described what gardaí found as a “veritable supermarket of drugs” operating inside a local party scene.
The apartment inventory
The offences arose from a Garda search of Sylla’s Grattan Street apartment on 23 November 2018. The case involved nine sale-or-supply counts covering DMT, DOB, LSD, amphetamine, MDMA, cocaine, ketamine, cannabis and cannabis plants. There were also possession and cannabis-cultivation counts. Reporting placed the combined drug value at approximately €25,000 and the cash seizure at €4,000.
The admitted operation
Sylla accepted that the drugs were his. His defence said he was part of a party scene in which people came to his home and he supplied them. Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said the variety was exceptional and supported the inference that Sylla had dealt openly and over time. The court was also concerned that he was in well-paid employment and was not selling to fund an addiction.
The final sentence
At Cork Circuit Criminal Court in October 2020, Sylla received three years’ imprisonment with the final two years suspended. The judge credited his guilty pleas, employment, changed behaviour, separation from his earlier social group and the fact that he had not come to Garda attention again during the two years between the search and sentencing.
Those factors reduced the immediate term to one year. They did not convert the outcome into a fully suspended sentence: the number of substances, the sale-or-supply purpose and the cash meant the court considered custody necessary.
Cost and seizure boundary
One year at the Irish Prison Service 2024 average of €99,072 per available staffed prison space gives a gross scale benchmark of €99,072. It is not a personal invoice and excludes investigation, prosecution, courts and legal aid. The €25,000 drugs valuation and €4,000 cash seizure are not taxpayer costs and are not added to the benchmark.