Darren Barnwell, 20, was toting a bag containing $47,000 in cocaine from Dublin to Cork, Ireland when he exited a train without his duffel. Security staff refused to allow an unsurprisingly upset Barnwell to re-board the train to retrieve it, so he called police to report the missing item. Then, Barnwell recalled that he had stopped in a shop at one point and likely left the bag there, not on the train. Fortunately, the shop was holding the bag in case the owner returned. But for some reason after he picked it up, a police officer stopped Barnwell outside the store and looked inside the bag. From the Irish Times:
Mr Barnwell admitted he had made the journey on the train from Dublin bringing the cocaine with him.
He is without any previous criminal convictions. On the date of the offence, he was working as a courier who was to deliver the cocaine to another individual.
Sgt O'Sullivan said in the intervening period since the incident Mr Barnwell had not come to the attention of gardaí.
In sentencing Judge Sean O'Donnabhain said it was "an unusual crime."
"I am justified in imposing a fully suspended sentence [of four years]. It is exceptional that he has no previous convictions or come to Garda attention since."
