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“Offence relating to possession of drugs with value of £10,000 or more.
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15A.—(1) A person shall be guilty of an offence under this section where—
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(a) the person has in his possession, whether lawfully or not, one or more controlled drugs for the purpose of selling or otherwise supplying the drug or drugs to another in contravention of regulations under section 5 of this Act, and
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(b) at any time while the drug or drugs are in the person's possession the market value of the controlled drug or the aggregate of the market values of the controlled drugs, as the case may be, amounts to £10,000 or more.
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(2) Subject to section 29(3) of this Act (as amended by
section 6
of the
Criminal Justice Act, 1999
), in any proceedings for an offence under this section, where—
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(a) it is proved that a person was in possession of a controlled drug, and
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(b) the court, having regard to the quantity of the controlled drug which the person possessed or to such other matters that the court considers relevant, is satisfied that it is reasonable to assume that the controlled drug was not intended for his immediate personal use,
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he shall be presumed, until the court is satisfied to the contrary, to have been in possession of the controlled drug for the purpose of selling or otherwise supplying it to another in contravention of regulations under section 5 of this Act.
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(3) If the court is satisfied that a member of the Garda Síochána or an officer of customs and excise has knowledge of the unlawful sale or supply of controlled drugs, that member or officer, as the case may be, shall be entitled in any proceedings for an offence under this section to be heard and to give evidence as to—
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(a) the market value of the controlled drug concerned, or
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(b) the aggregate of the market values of the controlled drugs concerned.
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(4) No proceedings may be instituted under this section except by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
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(5) In this section—
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‘market value’, in relation to a controlled drug, means the price that drug could be expected to fetch on the market for the unlawful sale or supply of controlled drugs;
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‘an officer of customs and excise’ has the same meaning as in
section 6
of the
Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996
.”.
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