Robert Wojtanowicz leased the Mountmellick garage Gardaí described as a “one stop shop for drug trafficking”. It contained industrial processing equipment, secret vehicle compartments and 182kg of cocaine. A linked Dublin search brought the cocaine total to 199kg and the overall drug valuation to approximately €14.1 million.

199kgCocaine recovered across the linked searches.
€14.1mReported overall drug valuation.
11 yearsImmediate custodial portion imposed.
€1,089,792Nominal gross prison-space benchmark.

A garage built around wholesale trafficking

On 4 February 2025, the Dublin Crime Response Team searched Laois Motor Works on Manor Street, Mountmellick. Wojtanowicz and co-accused Robert Cup were present. Gardaí recovered 182kg of cocaine and 4kg of cannabis at the premises, with a reported value of €12.82 million.

The drugs were distributed around the garage and concealed in vehicles. Five vehicles had been specially adapted, including three fitted with hydraulic mechanisms controlling hidden compartments. Gardaí also found multiple cocaine ovens and presses. Wojtanowicz owned three of the vehicles and held the lease on the garage.

Wojtanowicz pointed Gardaí to some one-kilogram bags of cocaine but did not disclose the much larger quantity hidden elsewhere. A linked search in Rathcoole recovered another 17kg of cocaine from a Ford Kuga and cash reported as suspected criminal proceeds. The combined cocaine seizure was 199kg; reporting put the operation’s overall drug valuation at approximately €14.1 million.

Guilty pleas and the final sentence

Wojtanowicz pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine and cannabis worth more than €13,000 for sale or supply and to two counts concerning vehicles adapted for use in drug trafficking. The pleas were entered shortly before a trial that counsel estimated could have lasted up to three weeks.

On 19 May 2026, Judge Keenan Johnson said Wojtanowicz and Cup were equally culpable, had been caught operating together at a high level and were part of a sophisticated enterprise that had run for at least a year. Each received twelve years and six months, with the final eighteen months suspended for five years. Concurrent five-year terms were also imposed. The immediate custodial portion was therefore eleven years.

The earlier record

Sentencing reports state that Wojtanowicz had lived in Ireland since 2005 and received a two-year suspended Irish sentence for theft in 2021. They also record prior offences in Poland involving fraud, forgery and breach of a court order. Located reporting does not give the dates or sentences for those Polish offences, so this file does not add details that the published court record does not establish.

Chronology

  • 2005: Reported beginning of residence in Ireland.
  • 2021: Two-year suspended Irish sentence for theft, according to sentencing reports.
  • 4 February 2025: Gardaí searched the Mountmellick garage and a linked Rathcoole location, recovering 199kg of cocaine, 4kg of cannabis and cash.
  • February 2026: Guilty pleas entered ahead of the scheduled trial.
  • 19 May 2026: Twelve years and six months imposed, with the final eighteen months suspended.
  • 2 August 2026: Published court and source record rechecked for this file.

Taxpayer benchmark

Applying the site’s €99,072 annual staffed-prison-space average to the eleven-year immediate custodial portion produces a nominal gross benchmark of €1,089,792.

This is a benchmark, not an invoice or a claim that Wojtanowicz caused precisely that expenditure. It does not estimate Garda surveillance and searches, forensic analysis, prosecution, courts, legal aid, drug storage or destruction. Remand is not added separately because time already spent in custody may be credited against the sentence. The €14.1 million drug valuation is a separate contraband estimate and is not added to the custody benchmark.

Questions raised by the record

  1. How long had the Mountmellick premises been operating as a processing and distribution centre before the search?
  2. Who financed the cocaine ovens, presses and adapted vehicles?
  3. Who supplied the 199kg of cocaine and who was meant to receive it?
  4. What proceeds or assets, beyond the reported cash seizure, were restrained or recovered?
  5. Did the 2021 suspended theft sentence lead to any supervision relevant to the later offending?

Sources and record notes

Record checked: 2 August 2026. RTÉ and the Laois Nationalist report Wojtanowicz as a Polish national. Located sources do not establish his citizenship documentation, immigration permissions, asylum history, deportation status or any removal decision, and this file makes no inference about them.