Tests confirm cocaine present in seized yacht shipment

Initial tests on a sample of the substance seized on board a yacht off the Irish coast are positive for cocaine, but further tests will be required to establish its purity and street value, it has emerged.

Assistant Commissioner John O’Mahony told a press briefing at the Naval base in Haulbowline that a sample from the haul found aboard the Makayabella had confirmed suspicions the drug was cocaine.

However, more detailed tests would be required to establish the purity of the drug, estimated at about 1 tonne in quantity, found on board the 19-metre yacht and conservatively estimated to be worth €80 million.

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The yacht Makayabella in Haulbowline naval base in Cobh, Co Cork last night after the Irish Navy intercepted the vessel suspected of carrying some €80 million worth of cocaine 200 nautical miles off Mizen Head. Photograph: Irish Naval Service Facebook page

The confirmation came as members of the Garda National Drugs Unit began removing about 40 bales of the drug from the yacht after the completion of a forensic examination of the vessel and its cargo by Garda technical experts this morning.

Meanwhile, Capt David Barry paid tribute to the crew of the LE Niamh and LE Roisin, which successfully intercepted the Makayabella in challenging conditions some 250 miles west-southwest of Mizen Head at about 3am on Tuesday morning.

Capt Barry, Officer Commanding Naval Operations Command, said the Naval Service, along with Customs and gardaí, had mounted a successful operation to intercept the yacht at short notice.

The LE Niamh, which had been on patrol off the southwest coast, proceeded to a specified location and was joined by the LE Roisin, which departed from the Naval Service base at Haulbowline on Sunday with Customs and Garda National Drugs Unit members on board.

Liam Irwin of the Revenue Commissioners paid tribute to the role of the Maritime Analysis Operations Centre for Narcotics based in Lisbon in Portugal, which had tasked the Joint Task Force on Drug Interdiction to mount an operation to intercept the cocaine haul.

Gardaí at the Bridewell Garda station in Cork are continuing to question three Britons, aged 70, 35 and 28, found on board the Makayabella and later arrested at Haulbowline after being brought ashore by the LE Roisin.

At least one of the men was expected to be transferred to Togher Garda station today for questioning. They can be detained for up to seven days.

It's believed the three are members of a West Yorkshire gang. The National Crime Agency in the UK, which is involved in the international operation, also arrested a 43 year-old man in West Yorkshire.

The man was arrested by agency officers in the Leeds area on suspicion of conspiracy to import Class A drugs into the UK. He is currently being questioned at a West Yorkshire police station about the smuggling operation.

After completion of the forensic examination, it is expected the drugs will be brought under armed guard to the State Laboratory in Co Meath for analysis to establish their purity and estimated street value.

The detention of the Makayabella and the arrest of the three crew members is the result of a carefully planned international operation involving police forces and other law enforcement agencies from a number of countries, The Irish Times has learned.

The National Crime Agency in the UK and French customs received intelligence on the planned shipment of cocaine from the Caribbean to the UK and passed on the intelligence to the Maritime Analysis Operation Centre Narcotics in Portugal.

The Maritime Analysis Operations Centre - Narcotics, which is based in Lisbon and co-ordinates anti-drug trafficking actions by several European Union states, then requested the Joint Task Force to intervene and detain the yacht off the southwest coast of Ireland.

It's believed the consignment of the drug, which was stored in large wrapped bales in the hull of the Makayabella, originated in Venezuela and was destined for the UK, possibly to be collected by a small boat in a process known as coopering, off the North Wales coast.