Driving ban for drug-driving offence that led Gardai to €104k cocaine haul

A Letterkenny man caught with a €104,000 cocaine haul has been given a driving ban for the drug-driving offence that led Gardai to the drugs,

Mark McMonagle, who is serving time in Castlerea Prison after being nabbed with the cache on January 8, 2021.

McMonagle was stopped at an MIT (mandatory intoxicant testing) checkpoint at Drumbuoy, Lifford, where he failed a roadside test. In a subsequent search, Gardai found 1,488.3 grams of cocaine concealed in a clothes bag in the back of the Vauxhall Combo van driven by McMonagle.

In May, he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison with the final two years suspended.

At this week’s sitting of Falcarragh District Court, McMonagle was disqualified from driving for one year and fined €200 for drug-driving by Judge Éiteáin Cunningham. He was not present, but was represented by his solicitor.

A 27-year-old, with an address at Sylvan Park, Gortlee, Letterkenny, McMonagle is likely to be behind bars for most of the duration of the disqualification.

Solicitor for McMonagle, Ms Alison Parke, said her client had addiction problems, but has since ‘changed his life drastically’.

“He lost his job and brought great shame on his family,” Ms Parke said. “He has stepped away from that path and turned his life around. He has been drug free since 2021 and has volunteered to help get young people on the right path from addiction.”