By Diarmuid Sherry
A man has pleaded guilty to being found in the possession of cocaine for sale after almost €8.5m worth of the drug was intercepted near Lough Owel, close to Mullingar. Tim Gilchrist Jr, 56, of Mavis Bank, Newrath, Waterford, pleaded guilty at a sitting of Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court last Friday, 1 March, to possessing cocaine for sale or supply worth €13,000 or more. The offence can attract a 10-year sentence. The charge relates to two vehicles intercepted by Gardaí in which 120kg of cocaine was recovered from one of the vehicles at Lough Owel, Irishtown, on 4 August, 2022.
Mr Gilchrist Jr is one of two men accused of being involved in the discovery of one of the State’s largest consignments of the controlled drug following a large-scale Garda surveillance operation.
