GARDAÍ SUSPECT THAT a €21 million haul of cocaine, found on a cargo ship at Foynes Port in Co Limerick, was a shipment organised by a network of criminal gangs rather than one single criminal entity, reliable sources have said.

Gardaí were examining a number of theories as to the actual destination of the half a tonne cocaine consignment, which ultimately sailed into the Shannon Estuary deep-water port town, around 10.40am yesterday.

Around 300kg of cocaine, worth around €21 million, was seized by Revenue Customs Services officials, on board the ship.

The 20,848 tonne ship left Montreal, Canada, on 9 December, arriving at Foynes onTuesday according to the Marine Traffic monitoring system, however sources said it was on its way to Waterford when it was diverted to Foynes.

The bulk carrier that was also carrying a legitimate cargo of grain remained in the custody of Revenue customs services officials and gardai today.

Local Independent Limerick City and County Councillor Emmett O’Brien said he had warned in 2018 that communities dotted along the estuary, from north Kerry to Limerick City were “awash with cocaine”.

Speaking today, Councillor O’Brien said his warnings were “ignored” by government.

“This drug seizure doesn’t come as any surprise to me, the government have known about this since 2018 and this is the fruits of local representatives being ignored, and a complete disregard for An Garda Síochána by the Fine Gael Justice Minister, and a lack of investment into our naval services.”

The Minister’s department was contacted this morning for comment but did not immediately respond.

“The Shannon Estuary and the west coast of Ireland is open territory – I hate to say it – for all types of illegal activity, and we need to have a proper task force and proper investment in our naval services to ensure that this doesn’t continue,” said O’Brien.

“I’m just glad this cocaine shipment has been seized. The cocaine problem is absolutely endemic, not just in my immediate electoral district (West county Limerick) but across the country, and it seems to permeate throughout all sectors of the community and ages as well,” he said. 

“There’s a prejudice that younger men in their 20s are cocaine users, but this goes right across through all ages and demographics. It’s a serious issue, and it is a blight on our society and it is causing very serious crimes, and something needs to be done about it fast,” O’Brien added.

A reliable garda source said that given the volume of cocaine involved in the seizure at Foynes it was “probably for a wider distribution so unlikely that it was just purely for the Irish market”’.

“It’s an awful lot of (cocaine), even with the level of consumption in this (country), it is still an awful lot of product,” they said. 

“It’s generally sold per gram, and there is a thousand grams in a kilogram, so this seizure is 300,000 deals of cocaine without even cutting it with another product, which would probably double it again.

“Is there any one Irish crime group that has that volume of funds to be able to finance that amount of delivery on its own, probably not. So that’s why I would say it’s a group delivery, and then it would get subdivided up.”

The source said that, given the “half a tonne” of cocaine found at Foynes, it was “unlikely” it would have ended up in the water to be collected later.

“It is a tactic, it is a method that they use, where they do offload stuff attached to buoys and to trackers and it is then collected, but it normally would be with much smaller amounts,” they said. 

A source familiar with Irish port operations said drug shipments have being sailed into Ireland’s coastline for decades “but they (customs) can’t police it”.

“Unless they get their information from Europol they have no way of monitoring the coast of Ireland with all the inlets, bays, and the criminals know that,” said the source.

Statements released by the Revenue Customs Service and gardaí revealed that Revenue officers boarded and searched the ship and “identified and later seized approximately 300kg of cocaine with an estimated value of €21 million”.

“Revenue officers, including specialist search teams, supported by drug detector dogs, are continuing to search the vessel as part of a live and on-going operation.”

Garda forensic officers and customs officials were to continue searching the 189.98m x 23.8m cargo vessel over the next few days.

A Garda spokesperson said gardaí were “working closely with Revenue officers in this operation, the Garda Investigation is being led by the Limerick Division Crime Functional Area, supported by Divisional Resources, Regional Armed Support Unit, National Units including the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) and International agencies, including MAOC(N)”.

A Revenue spokesman said its “investigations are continuing” and it remained “a live operation”.

“This seizure is part of Revenue’s ongoing operations targeting the importation of illegal drugs. If businesses or members of the public have any information regarding drug smuggling, they can contact Revenue in confidence on Confidential Phone Number 1800 295 295.”