A man who was caught running an online drug dealing network from a business premises in Dublin has failed to have his sentence reduced.

Neil Mannion of Mount Drummond Avenue in Harold’s Cross, Dublin was jailed for six and a half years for his part in the two-man operation.

Richard O’Connor of Clonskeagh Road, Clonskeagh was working on a laptop when gardaí stormed a business unit on Dublin’s South Circular Road on November 5, 2014.

€143,000 worth of drugs were found and gardaí also took away a vacuum pack machine, some weighing scales, Visa cards, envelopes and some postage labels.

He, along with Neil Mannion, were selling drugs on an encrypted part of the internet that’s difficult to access and allows users remain anonymous.

Mr Mannion took full responsibility for the online side of things, while his co-accused admitted packaging and posting the drugs for up to €1,000 a week.

Last year, Neil Mannion was jailed for six and a half years and Mr O’Connor received a three-year sentence.

Mannion’s legal team appealed his sentence because of what they believed to be unjustifiable disparity between the two.

In dismissing his appeal today, Mr Justice George Birmingham agreed with the sentencing judge’s remarks that Mr Mannion was the “brains” of the operation, and accepted that Mr O’Connor’s role was secondary.