The trial of an Englishman charged in connection with the second ever largest Irish drug seizure has heard that the €400 million cocaine seizure off the west Cork coast was so big that gardaí did not believe it was destined for the Irish market.
John Alan Brooks (60), originally from Blackpool in England but with an address in Marbella in Spain, is on trial at Birmingham Crown Court charged with conspiracy to import 1.5 tonnes of cocaine into the UK in November 2008.
Yesterday Assistant Garda Commissioner Tony Quilter told the jury at the trial that gardaí thought the drugs were destined for the UK as they did not believe the Irish market for cocaine would sustain such a huge shipment of drugs.
The drugs were seized on November 6th, 2008 when, in a joint operation involving the Garda, Customs and Naval Service, a naval boarding party from the ‘LE Niamh’ boarded and detained the yacht, ‘Dances with Waves’.
Three Britons have already been jailed for 10 years at Cork Circuit Court in connection with the haul.