Brian Rattigan, 31, from Cooley Road in Walkinstown was running a drugs supply network by mobile phone from his cell in Portlaoise Prison.
The three judges of the Special Criminal Court ruled that a drugs “tick list” sent by text along with notes found in his cell amounted to directions as the distribution of the 5kg of heroin.
It is the first time a drug dealer has been convicted of running his business from inside prison.
Messages relating to the division of the heroin from a phone Rattigan had in prison were found on the phone found in Walkinstown.
He was caught by surprise at 9.30pm the following evening when detectives entered his cell while he was lying in bed with a phone in his hand.
He threw it out the door, but it was recovered along with notebooks, three SIM cards and another phone.
Rattigan had sent coded messages about the drugs to his associates, who included "Parro" "Dicko" "Ganko" "Lips".
Heroin was known as “the dark” and when it arrived at the house, Rattigan texted "the dark is there".
Rattigan received a text - "can you give me half a box of the bad thing for 13" - from a customer prepared to pay €13,000 for a half kilo of heroin.
Rattigan texted "Lips" to "drop €30 up to the Paret man" - the 30 referring to €30,000 found by gardaí at the base of a bed in the house.
One of the last orders Rattigan texted to “Lips” was to: "Get rid of ur phones quick," but it was too late.
Rattigan was arrested and charged with possession and supply of the heroin in the house even though he was in prison at the time.
The three judges said that while they were satisfied that Rattigan was in possession of the phone that sent the texts directing the distribution of the heroin, that still did not mean he was guilty of that offence.
However, they were satisfied that a drugs “tick list” sent by text along with notes found in his cell meant that he was guilty of possession with intent to supply the heroin.
Rattigan is due to be sentenced next month.
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