PLAN TO SET UP HEROIN NETWORK IS FOILED

PLANS by English criminals to establish a network to bring heroin into
Dublin were nipped in the bud by Operation Mainstreet, a court heard
yesterday.

Petty criminal John Miles was caught with the gang's first consignment,
worth IEP50,000, during a garda operation against drug dealing.

Miles (23), of Southgate, Hartlepool, Cleveland, pleaded guilty in Dublin
Circuit Criminal Court to having the heroin for sale at Upper O'Connell
Street, Dublin, on October 9, 1997. Judge Frank O'Donnell adjourned
sentence to July 14.

Miles had been released only a month earlier from a sentence in Britain
when he was caught with the drugs he had brought on the ferry to Dun
Laoghaire. He had 44 previous convictions, half of which involved cars. The
rest related to burglary and theft.

Garda Sean McLaughlin said gardai were involved in surveillance of a
bedroom in the Gresham Hotel on October 9, 1997, following information that
a drugs transaction was to take place.

Miles and a woman were seen entering a bedroom. When they left again at
2.25 p.m. they were stopped for a search. The heroin was found concealed in
the front of the defendant's trousers.

Miles claimed initially he had bought the drugs in Inchicore. He later
admitted he was to be paid IEP3,000 to bring the drugs from Birmingham. He
said he would not name the organisers behind the drugs operation because he
feared for his life if he did.

The bedroom in the Gresham was searched and an English man and an Irish
woman were arrested. No drugs were discovered but gardai found UKP2,000 and
IEP160.

Miles, who had been staying in a guest house on Gardiner Street, was the
only person charged.