Drug-dealer jailed for role in organised crime gang

A man involved in an organised crime gang supplying drugs in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has been jailed for two years.

Jack Terence Boyd, 28, whose address was given as Maghaberry Prison, will spend another two years on licence after his release.

Londonderry Crown Court was told on Tuesday that he was found with a record of drug debts from people totalling about £200,000.

He admitted seven charges, relating to the possession and supply of drugs between May and July last year.

A prosecution barrister told Judge Roseanne McCormick that the case did not involve “street dealing” but commercial quantities of drugs and substantial sums of cash.

Defence barrister Michael Wilson said his client had become “intertwined” with organised criminals.

The judge said the offending came to light after Boyd was stopped in May 2024 and a mobile phone seized.

An examination of the phone revealed “substantial evidence” of drug dealing on both sides of the border involving “kilos of drugs”.

The defendant was released on bail, and on 26 July was seen driving and followed to an address, where two more phones were seized and a small quantity of drugs was found, along with money.

He told police he was acting “under duress” from paramilitaries and recounted how he had been taken away by them and assaulted.

Judge McCormick said Boyd had a “chaotic lifestyle” and at one point was spending £1,000 a day on his own drugs habit.

She described it as a “very significant commercial drugs operation”, but said he would receive credit for his guilty plea.

The judge also ordered that €2,000 (£1,760) recovered in the case be donated to a local addiction charity.