Too much Cocaine tips the RIB

by Southern Star Cork on 7 Jul 2007 The discovery of a huge drug haul off the West Coast of Ireland began last Monday when a rescue mission was launched after a 22-year-old man managed to swim over a mile ashore and raise the alarm that he and two companions were thrown into the sea when their 7 metre RIB capsized in heavy seas.

The man made his way to a farmhouse and raised the alarm shortly before 7.45am on Monday and the Goleen Cliff and Coastal Search Unit of the Irish Coastguard was mobilized.

One small fact was left out of his narrative, the RIB capsized under the weight of too many bales of Cocaine.

Members of Goleen Cliff and Coastal Search Unit spotted a second man wearing a life jacket in the sea at around 9.10am and they notified Castletownbere Lifeboat who recovered the man and the Irish Coastguard Sikorski helicopter which had also been scrambled, airlifted the man ashore to a waiting ambulance.

The man was brought to Bantry General Hospital where his colleague had earlier been brought suffering from hypothermia and while the first man later discharged himself only to be arrested by Police, the second man continued to treated at the hospital where his condition on Tuesday was described by a HSE South spokeswoman as 'comfortable'.

Meanwhile members of Goleen Cliff and Coastal Search team along with Castletownbere and Baltimore Lifeboats and Irish Coastguard helicopters from both Shannon and Waterford continued to search the seas around the Mizen Head for the third missing man, only to call off the search shortly before 6 pm on Monday.

The younger man was arrested on Monday when he discharged himself from hospital and was held for questioning on suspicion of involvement in the smuggling of over 1.5 tonnes of cocaine with an estimated value of ?107m – the largest ever found in this country – which was washed on to the coast around the Mizen Head.
Customs officers recovered the partially submerged RIB late on Monday night and on Tuesday Customs officers and Police recovered a second RIB near Durrus which, along with a small dinghy, they believe also belonged to the English based drugs gang.

The Customs cutter also joined the drugs recovery operation on Monday which saw some 60 bales of cocaine each weighing 25 kilos recovered from the water and brought ashore by the cutter and Baltimore Lifeboat at Baltmore where customs and Police began the task of logging the drugs.

Customs officers also recovered another 25 kilo bale of cocaine from rocks in Dunlough Bay on Tuesday afternoon to bring to 61 the number of bales recovered and bring the total haul of cocaine to 1.575 tonnes with a value of just under §107 million.

The key question yet to be answered where is the yacht with from which the RIB crew transferred their weighty cargo?

Certainly this incident raises the spectre of the area being seen as an easy importation route for drugs from South America and elsewhere into Ireland, the UK and Europe and follows a series of such drug smuggling operations in the 1990s which came to light after being foiled by gardai and customs.

Among these successes was one on July 31, 1991 when Customs officers found 28 bales of cannabis resin worth §9 million when they searched a yacht, The Karma of the East, leading to the arrest and conviction of Cork antiques dealer, Christopher Golly O'Connell who was jailed for eight years.

In September 1996, Customs officers under Customs Enforcement Officer, Paddy O'Sullivan had another success when backed up by the Gardai and the Navy, they searched a converted trawler, the Sea Mist which had been forced into Cork Harbour by stormy weather and located some 599 kilos of cocaine worth over §100 million hidden on board.

Five crew went on trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court but only one, skipper Gordon Richards was eventually convicted and he was sentenced to 17 years in jail by Judge A. G. Murphy for his part in the drug smuggling operation which it later emerged was organised by Dublin born, British drugs baron, Brian Wright.

Just over two years later, Customs officers and Gardai enjoyed another succcess when they searched a catamaran, The Gemeos in Kinsale Harbour which had just crossed the Atlantic and found that she contained a major stash of 325 kilos of cocaine worth over §60 million.

Just over a year later, a trawler, The Posidonia was boarded off the West Cork coast by Naval Service personnel from the LE Ciara accompanied by Customs Officers who found §18 million worth of cannabis resin in huge bales hidden on board.

The consignment had been picked up off Morrocco and due to be offloaded to a boat off the Cork coast for shipment ashore. English skipper Richard Preece was jailed for nine years and two other Englishmen, Barry Court and Matthew Simkins, were each jailed for seven years at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

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