Drug dealer who told woman he would have ‘junkies’ rape her son over €157,000 debt jailed

A drug dealer who told a mother that he would get “junkies” to rape her son if she failed to repay his €157,000 debt during a campaign of intimidation has been jailed for ten years. The Special Criminal Court sentenced Mark “Fishy” Salmon (33), of Kilbarron Avenue, Kilmore, west Dublin, today for making threats to kill people or damage their property, as well as the possession of €35,000 worth of cocaine and the proceeds of crime. He had pleaded pleaded guilty to the charges in February. “The accused preyed on the mother of a person who’d amassed a drug debt and made vicious and ongoing threats to her son[s],” presiding judge Mr Justice Patrick McGrath said in passing the court’s sentence. The victim’s other son, who had no involvement in the drugs trade, was also named in threatening communications from Salmon, Mr Justice McGrath noted. “No doubt the recipient was terrified and deeply concerned for the safety of her two sons,” the judge added. The woman had left her home for a time out of concern for her safety and that of her family – while her elder son had left the country. Salmon was jailed for ten years today by the court. “[The threats] were made to strike terror in the recipients and to exert maximum pressure, exploiting her love for her son and her fear of what might happen to him if she did not comply,” Mr Justice McGrath said. Salmon’s criminal culpability was heightened by the fact that he ranked “above those at the lowest end of the supply chain” in drug dealing; was “prepared to use a considerable level of intimidation and violence” and had “profited from his criminal activities”, the judge said. However, the court noted an early guilty plea, the absence of “any relevant...