Gardaí and Customs officials have unloaded up to €700 million worth of cocaine from a yacht seized off the west Cork coast early yesterday. The drugs are to be transferred under tight security to Garda headquarters in Dublin later today for analysis.
The yacht, which left the Caribbean three weeks ago, was packed with 75 packages of cocaine, each weighing 25 kilograms. A detailed forensic examination of a luxury yacht has started..
Gale force winds and seven metre high waves delayed the arrival of the Dances With Waves, which was escorted ashore under armed guard to Co Cork. The vessel, laden with over 1.7 tonnes of cocaine, arrived in Dinish, Castletownbere at 9.30am, after it was delayed by poor weather conditions.
Gardaí are continuing to question three British men, from the Devon area of soutwest England, who were taken from the boat and arrested off the coast yesterday. The men in their 40s and 50s are being questioned at Bantry and Bandon Garda stations. The can be held for up to a week before being released or charged.
The yacht was detained 257km (60 miles) west of Mizen Head during a joint operation on Wednesday night and yesterday morning. It involved gardaí, Customs officers and the Naval Service. A boarding party from the LE Niamhcarried out a search of the yacht and found a large number of packets of cocaine.
Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenent General Dermot Earley paid tribute today to the armed units, travelling in rigid inflatables from the ship, who boarded the yacht at night, in poor weather, some 150 Nautical Miles from the coast and arrested the men.
The vessel had been tracked from the Caribbean across the Atlantic until it was intercepted by Irish authorities.
It is believed the seizure is the biggest in the history of the State with estimates varying from €500 million to €700 million. This exceeds the 1.5 tonnes of drugs, worth €440 million, recovered last year from Dunlough Bay, near Mizen Head in west Cork. It is thought the drugs were not intended for the Irish market and were more likely destined for the UK.
Once the yacht arrived in Castletownbere today, it was handed over to Customs officers for examination. The drugs will be removed from the boat by gardaí who will examine the haul to establish its purity and its value.
A 24-year-old Englishman was jailed on Wednesday for 10 years for his involvement in the Dunough Bay smuggling operation.
Gerard Hagan from Hollowcroft, Liverpool was jailed by Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin after he pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to possessing the huge haul of drugs for sale or supply at Dunlough Bay, Mizen Head, on July 2nd, 2007.
Judge Ó Donnabháin said Hagan's case differed significantly from those of his co-accused, Englishmen Martin Wanden and Perry Wharrie, whom he had earlier jailed for 30 years, and Joe Daly, who he had jailed for 25 years, after an eight-week trial.
"There is no comparison between you and the men who engaged in such blatantly cynical perjury - the manner [in] which you met the case puts you on an entirely different pedestal . . . it was probably the most cynical perjured criminality before a jury I have ever seen."