A SENIOR official with the Criminal Assets Bureau yesterday expressed satisfaction with the results of an auction that raised €100,000 from the sale of an ocean-going catamaran and other equipment seized from a gang trying to smuggle €440 million worth of drugs into Ireland.
The Cab's chief legal officer, Frank Cassidy, said the bureau was satisfied with the €58,000 obtained for The Lucky Day, used by the British-based gang to ship 1.5 tonnes of cocaine from South America across the Atlantic to smuggle ashore in west Cork.
The 35ft catamaran was seized by Spanish police off northern Spain on foot of a request from the Garda and Customs after the smuggling operation went awry in rough seas at Dunlough Bay near Mizen Head in west Cork on July 2nd, 2007.
The twin-hulled, eight-berth vessel, which the drugs gang had bought for $132,000 in the US in the spring of 2007, was bought at yesterday’s auction at Little Island in Cork by Tipperary-born sailing enthusiast Emer Stafford, who said she felt she had got a real bargain.
“I’m just very happy to get it for €58,000,” she said. “It’s been a dream of mine to own a catamaran, a dream of a lifetime and one that’s now fulfilled so hopefully I’ll spend plenty of time on her out on the seas, hopefully around the Mediterranean.
"I know the vessel was called The Lucky Dayand today was my lucky day but I'm hoping to rename her Imeerawhich is the Egyptian for princess," said Ms Stafford, who plans to bring the boat back from Spain to Killybegs in Co Donegal where she lives.
Earlier, auctioneer Dominic Daly had raised more than a few laughs from the 300-strong crowd when he sought bids for the 6m ballistic rigid inflatable boat used by the gang to bring the drugs ashore but which capsized in rough seas in Dunlough Bay.
“This could be a memento in your garden, it carried the biggest load of drugs ever landed into Europe – there’s a lot of history attached to it,” said Mr Daly before describing its previous owners as currently “enjoying a long holiday” in prison.
In the event, the inflatable boat and her two 200hp engines, which were badly damaged after capsizing in Dunlough Bay, fetched only €2,000, but a smaller rescue inflatable boat used by the gang went for a respectable €12,000 after a flurry of bids.
Three Landrover jeeps bought by the gang in England to bring the drugs back to the UK by ferry went for €8,500, €8,500 and €11,000, bringing the Cab’s total take from the auction to €100,000.