A drug smuggler convicted of killing a British policeman will be extradited back to the UK after he serves a 30-year prison sentence in Ireland, a court ruled today.
Perry Wharrie - jailed after the seizure of €440 million of cocaine off the Cork coast — will be sent back to Britain at the end of his lengthy sentence.
The 49-year-old was part of an armed gang who murdered off-duty policeman Francis Mason in 1988.
Wharrie was jailed for 17 years but fled the country while on parole.
He surfaced again in July 2007 during a botched drug smuggling operation off Cork when a boat’s two high-powered outboard motors were filled with diesel instead of petrol.
Mr Justice Michael Peart, at the High Court, said he did not believe any reason put forward by Wharrie’s legal team was significant enough to prove he should not make an order to surrender.
Micheal O’Higgins, for the State, applied to have the extradition order postponed until the end of Wharrie’s 30-year jail term.
Counsel for the convicted drug smuggler, Michael O’Higgins, made no objection.
He had argued that his client’s constitutional and human rights would be breached if an extradition order was granted by the court and postponed as the legal and parole system in the UK could change over the coming years.
Dressed in a smart dark suit and flanked by prison officers and gardai, Wharrie did not speak during the brief hearing.
Wharrie, from Loughton, Essex, was escorted back to Ireland’s maximum security prison in Portlaoise by armed soldiers.
PA