Oana Onofrei, of St Edmunds Grove, Lucan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of drugs for sale or supply at her home on 13 November 2025.[1] On Friday 9 October 2026 Judge Martin Nolan sentenced her to four years, backdated to November 2025, when she went into custody.[1] She was 49, with no previous convictions, and was about to turn 50.[1]
Gardaí had searched the house after a tip and after watching a delivery.[1] They found cannabis valued at €1,556,000.[1] Onofrei told detectives she had lost a tenant the previous Christmas, could not pay the rent, and met men in a local park who offered €1,000 a month for a room.[1] She said she knew it was for weed, that they needed a place to store and sort it, and that she gave them a key.[1] Sometimes they left money on bags and texted her to deliver them, using the Signal app.[1] She said the first deliveries were small and that one later bag was larger, with €50 left on it.[1]
She told the court she was sorry and that she had done it so her family could live.[1] Her counsel, Diana Stuart, said she worked at Tesco Home Deliveries, that the rent was very high, and that she had started smoking cannabis before agreeing to keep the drugs in the house.[1] Judge Nolan said she had made little or no profit, noting she never had the money to take up €5,000 bail, but that she was a reasonably vital part of the operation.[1] He said the usual headline sentence would be eight years and cut it in half because of mitigation, and that she was unlikely to offend again.[1]