Cocaine haul worth £430million is seized off Irish coast
Cocaine haul worth £430 million is seized by Ireland’s elite Army Ranger Wing off the coast of Cork in the biggest drugs seizure in the country’s history
- Cocaine with value of up to half a billion euro was seized from Colombian cartel
- The ARW stormed the shipping container on the coast of Cork on Tuesday
Cocaine with a street value of up to half a billion euro (£430,000) was seized from a Colombian cartel on Irish seas in what is the biggest-ever drugs seizure in the history of the State, authorities have now confirmed.
The elite Army Ranger Wing (ARW) stormed the MV Matthew shipping container on Tuesday lunchtime after rappelling down from a helicopter amid stormy conditions off the coast of Cork.
The drugs originated from ‘a murderous cartel’ in Colombia and was supplying smaller vessels that would sail to the container ship from which the drugs would then be removed.
It has since emerged that an Iranian captain of the ship may have been attacked by crew members as the ARW circled overhead. He received medical attention for his injuries.
He was arrested after the ship was boarded. Over $100,000 dollars (£82,000) in cash was also discovered in his luggage.
Daring: The MV Matthew was detained after it was stormed by armed Defence Forces personnel and gardaí
Stash: The seized drugs were displayed by the joint task force
While investigations are still at an early stage, sources have told the Irish Daily Mail that the Kinahan organised crime gang was involved, in part, with the smuggling operation.
Colombians behind haul
The Colombian Gulf Clan, or Clan del Golfo, are believed by authorities to have been behind the botched €157million cocaine delivery off the southern coast.
The cartel has a presence in many of Colombia’s provinces and has established international connections with other criminal organisations.
This week, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on ten people associated with the Sinaloa drug trafficking cartel and Clan del Golfo in Colombia due to their involvement in drug trafficking. This move blocks their assets in the United States and prohibits US citizens from engaging with their assets.
This August, Dario Antonio Úsuga David, known by various aliases including ‘Otoniel’, a citizen of Colombia, was sentenced by a United States district judge to 45 years’ imprisonment for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise as a leader of the multibillion-dollar paramilitary and drug trafficking organisation known as the ‘Clan del Golfo’.
The official valuation of the drugs has been estimated at around €157 million (£136million) from a yield of 2,253 kg of cocaine, but the street value is thought to be at least three times that amount as the dealers and local suppliers will cut the drugs with chemical agents to be able to sell more of it.
The smuggled substance was removed from a cargo ship off the Co. Cork coast after a daring joint operation by Irish naval, customs and intelligence organisations on Tuesday.
Officials said yesterday that the cocaine was supplied by a South American cartel known for smuggling drugs into Europe.
Six people have been arrested so far. Gardaí said three men were arrested last night, and that the three arrested earlier in the week, aged 60, 50, and 31, were still in custody. Two were airlifted from a trawler that got stuck in a sandbank off Wexford on Monday. Another was arrested on the container ship in Cork on Tuesday.
Gardaí believe that the trawler intended to pick up some of the cocaine supply from the MV Matthew but bad weather caused it to veer off course. All three remain in custody in garda stations in Co. Wexford.
All 25 crew members of the MV Matthew will be interviewed, and gardaí say more arrests could be made. The shipping container was escorted to Cork Harbour.
A source said: ‘You see this kind of thing quite often with very large consignments of drugs. Many groups will jump in together to split the risk. The Kinahan gang is one of the groups gardaí believe was behind this seizure. But the suppliers are one of the most feared cartels in the world.
‘With the value of the drugs, you could say that it is around half a billion if it was to be sold in Ireland. Dealers will cut the cocaine with agents like benzocaine and other adulterants to get more out of their supply. It’s a common move by dealers.
‘Gardaí have arrested three men already but you have to remember this is only the start. They really do believe they have stopped one of the most lucrative cocaine smuggling routes in the world. I would estimate that billions and billions of euro worth of drugs would have been transported in this way and for a long time also. I can’t overstate the significance of this seizure.’
Above: The movements of the cocaine boat
‘A hit for the people involved’: Gerry Harrahill, Justin Kelly and Tony Geraghty
Forensic teams are continuing to search the container ship and this could take days due to the size of the vessel.
‘It’s effectively going to be dismantled. Every inch of it is going to be searched. No stone left unturned,’ another source added.
Movements of the cocaine boat
August 18
The MV Matthew leaves the southern Caribbean to collect its cargo of cocaine from Guyana.
Friday, September 22
A joint task force – including the Garda, Naval Service, Army Ranger Wing and Revenue officials – is deployed to intercept the ship, guided by a team of intelligence services. Meanwhile, a smaller trawler, the Castlemore, is purchased from Castletownbere in west Cork. It sails off that evening.
Sunday, September 24
The Castlemore trawler – suspected of being used to cart deliveries of drugs from the MV Matthew to shore – runs aground on a sandbank off the coast of Blackwater, Co Wexford.
Monday, September 25
Two men, who are now in custody, are winched to safety from the trawler by the Irish Coast Guard in the early hours of the morning. The MV Matthew, which had been experiencing engine trouble throughout the weekend, is able to restore power. The captain of the ship, however, experiences a blackout and is injured as a result. He is evacuated from the vessel by an Irish Coast Guard helicopter around 9pm that evening, and hospitalised.
Tuesday, September 26
The MV Matthew is heading to the Port of Cork to source turbochargers for its damaged engines when the crew realise they’re being pursued by authorities, who have been tracking the vessel for some time. Ignoring commands from the naval ship the LÉ William Butler Yeats, the cargo ship changes its course to flee Irish waters and warning shots are fired. Unable to board the ship from the naval vessel due to blustery weather, an Army Ranger Wing team descends to the ship’s deck from fast ropes dangling from a helicopter above. The vessel is secured and brought to Cork Harbour where a search team discovers a massive quantity of cocaine stashed aboard.
Wednesday, September 27
Irish authorities announce the €157million worth of cocaine found on the MV Matthew is the largest amount ever seized in the history of the State.
‘Gardaí and the Defence Forces have been watching this ship for a long time and it was officially put under surveillance last week. They’ve been working with international partners where there is a lot of sharing of intelligence. It’s a big win for the authorities.’
The dramatic seizure was the result of a multi-national operation involving intelligence agencies from the US, UK, France and Portugal’s Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (MAOC).
Assistant Commissioner of Garda Serious and Organised Crime, Justin Kelly, called the operation ‘hugely significant’ and a ‘hit for the people involved’. Speaking at a media briefing in Dublin, he said: ‘It shows our unrelenting determination to disrupt and dismantle networks which are determined to bring drugs into our country.
‘These are transnational groups. They are working all across the world and, because of that, we need to work with our international partners,’ Mr Kelly added.
The cargo ship had been under surveillance since Friday, when a multi-agency operation responded to intelligence of a major international drug-smuggling operation.
After refusing to obey orders from an Irish naval ship, warning shots were fired and the boat was forcibly boarded on Tuesday.
Authorities said there is no evidence to suggest that those on the ships were armed.
A trawler that grounded off the Wexford coast late on Sunday was also being monitored.
The drug seizure was the first time the Army Ranger Wing has been deployed in such an operation. Poor weather conditions and the cargo boat’s immense size – measuring 190m long with an exceptionally high freeboard – meant that fast ropes were the only option to board.
Naval Commander Tony Geraghty called the complex ranger operation ‘extremely difficult’. He said: ‘You’re trying to keep a rotary-wing aircraft in a certain position over a ship that’s moving. It’s extremely difficult mentally and it’s extremely difficult physically.
‘A great deal of skill had to be shown by the pilot and the Army Ranger Wing roping down.’
Authorities believe the smuggled cocaine was not destined only for Ireland. Intelligence suggests that the organised crime cartel behind the shipment comprises several different groups from across Europe.
However, Assistant Commissioner Kelly insisted that there’s ‘no doubt’ an Irish criminal group is involved with such a large shipment coming into Irish waters.
Gerry Harrahill, Director of General Operations at Revenue and Customs, added that the agencies’ primary goal is to keep people safe.
He said: ‘We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that what we have managed to do is remove the possibility for destruction and devastation to families, to individuals and communities, by ensuring that this product doesn’t get onto the streets.’
Philip Nolan: Our underfunded navy got lucky this time
Not since I was a kid have I been quite as excited by a breaking story as I was this week by the drug seizure off the coast a few kilometres down the road from home in Co Wexford. It had everything.
First, the emergency services go to the aid of a fishing trawler, the Castlemore, stuck on a sandbank, but the cargo is not fish. Instead, it appears to be bales of cocaine, some of which might have fallen into the sea.
Reports from the south county suggest the entire area is like Saigon on the day it fell, with helicopters buzzing the skies. There are reports of opportunists stalking the beaches for displaced cargo, like the gun-runners at the end of Ryan’s Daughter or, a more recent example, Jock and Conor in The Young Offenders.
Soon, though, it turns out that in maritime terms, this vessel is just a sprat, and there is a much bigger fish to fry. Out to sea, a mother ship, as it were, has fed the smaller one its nefarious drugs stash. The Navy is sent to intercept and actually fires shots when the ship changes course.
PHILIP NOLAN: Not since I was a kid have I been quite as excited by a breaking story as I was this week by the drug seizure off the coast a few kilometres down the road from home in Co Wexford
Swashbuckling
Army Rangers are sworn in as customs officers to give their search legitimacy and, toting Heckler & Koch carbine rifles, they ‘fast rope’ down from a hovering chopper and board the Panamanian-registered MV Matthew. The only thing that could have made it any more Hollywood would have been if we were told that one of them stormed the bridge and shouted: ‘Listen, boyo, I am the captain now.’
Thrilling doesn’t come close to describing it, and I wasn’t the only one who was captivated by this swashbuckling derring-do.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee was quick to congratulate all the agencies involved in the operation. The Taoiseach singled out ‘international partners’ too, as it seems the Matthew was literally on the radar of European drug enforcement agencies since it left the Caribbean on August 18.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin singled out the Revenue Commissioners and An Garda Síochána. Then there came praise from the Minister for Enterprise, Trade, Employment and Whatever You’re Having Yourself, Simon Coveney, who tweeted a little more tersely: ‘Great work by the Defence Forces and the Garda.’
This was quite amusing, since his tenure as Minister for Defence was uninspiring, and that entire portfolio, now overseen by the Tánaiste, has long been run almost as an afterthought.
Poor pay and conditions in the Defence Forces, particularly in the Navy, have led to a recruitment and staffing crisis. In part, this is attributed to the fact that legal provisions protecting employees in other jobs do not apply, including the Organisation of Working Times Act, the Payment of Wages Act, and the Unfair Dismissals Act.
Some older officers who had university tuition paid for by the State on condition they served for agreed periods of time, have actually paid – in one case €67,000 – to be released from that obligation. This might mean nothing more than their acquired skill set was more valuable in the commercial world, but it’s still a huge chunk of money to hand over.
In lower ranks, the disaffection seems more obvious. Ten years ago, the Defence Forces had 12,000 personnel, but that number has dwindled to not much above 7,000. The Navy, especially, has suffered. Six of its eight ships are tied up because of staff shortages, and this week, only one ship, the LÉ William Butler Yeats, was available to help in the operation.
So while we should celebrate what was achieved – and I don’t mean in any way to minimise the laudable interception of €157million worth of cocaine and its removal from the criminal Irish and European supply chain – this also leads to a bigger question. What more could we do if we had a functioning Navy with eight ships instead of two?
The coastline of this island is 3,172km long. You can drive 2,600km of that on the Wild Atlantic Way (trust me, I know, because I have done it), and what strikes you is how remote and invisible it is – a smuggler’s paradise for those who know the individual bays and coves along the route. There is a lot to patrol, but with so few resources available, it’s like an open door.
Defences
Who knows how many small boats have, over the years, been supplied offshore by larger ships just like the Matthew, without fear of being boarded at all?
As a country, we don’t just underfund this proactive patrolling of our waters, we also underfund our defences against attack. Air cover largely is devolved to the UK’s Royal Air Force, and a lot of equipment is lost, damaged, obsolete or uneconomical to repair. In the year to September 2021, the Defence Forces wrote off 9,500 pieces of equipment, from trucks and troop carriers to stab jackets, tactical radio systems, and remote observation devices.
In short, the western bulwark of Europe is a country with a seriously deficient military capacity, and with no obvious will in Government to rectify that situation. But, hey, as long as two unlucky clowns with little seafaring experience somehow manage to hit a sandbank, and by extension create the perfect storm that leads to something ministers can tweet about like they shimmied down the ropes themselves, is it likely anyone really cares enough to make a difference?
Source: Read Full Article