LAST UPDATE | 27 Sep 2023
GARDAÍ HAVE CONFIRMED that the suspected cocaine found on a cargo ship boarded and seized by the Army Ranger Wing in a dramatic operation off the south coast yesterday afternoon is worth around €157 million.
Speaking this morning, senior Garda officers officers hailed it as a “really good outcome” and said specialists had determined overnight that the weight of the drugs as 2,353 kilos.
It’s the largest ever seizure of drugs in the history of the State.
The elite soldiers took control of the ship off the Cork/Waterford coast yesterday as part of a major drug smuggling investigation. Officers confirmed this morning that the probe was targeting a South American cartel.
Members of the gardaí, Naval Service and Revenue Customs Service have been giving a press conference on the detention of the Panamanian-registered bulk cargo vessel, MV Matthew, and the wider operation – which also focused on a trawler that became stranded off the coast of Wexford.
Three people are currently in custody.
Praising the operation in the Dáil this afternoon, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said it represents a “serious blow” to organised crime groups.
The haul yesterday represented the largest seizure of cocaine – or any illegal drug – in Irish history, Garda Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau confirmed at the press conference.
Operations like this, he said, are aimed at disrupting global drug-smuggling networks.
The seizure was carried out following support from the Drug Enforcement Agency in the US, the National Crime Agency in the UK and other international support, including the EU-backed Maritime Analysis Operations Centre and French police.
Commander Tony Geraghty of the Irish Naval Service confirmed that shots had been fired at the MV Matthew in advance of the boarding to prevent the ship from maneuvering. They were warning shots, fired into the sea, Geraghty said – and there were no indications that anyone on board was armed.
The shots were sent into the water around the vessel in the moments before the Army Ranger Wing fast-roped from an Air Corps helicopter onto the deck.
Officers said this morning that while initial analysis put the value of the drugs at €157 million, the street value of the drugs could be far higher once the cocaine was cut with other substances.
Kelly said a number of organised crime groups in Ireland have the capability to smuggle drugs in as attempted on the MV Matthew. When asked if it might be related to the Kinahan group, Kelly said he would not discuss which group is behind the operation at the moment.
He added that more large shipments are “inevitable”, due to a glut of cocaine on the market and Europe’s position as the biggest cocaine market in the world.
When asked if Ireland may be a weaker entry point, Kelly disagreed and pointed to record seizures in ports in Spain and Netherlands.
Instead, the message from this week’s operation is that Ireland isn’t an “easy place” to import drugs into for cartels, Kelly told the briefing.
He said the operation is a “significant disruption”, as there’s a “significant outlay of money in getting an operation like this up and running”. This ranges from hiring a vessel and crew, to the “corrupting of officials across the globe”.
“This is a huge hit for people involved in this,” he said.
Follow-up operations are also in motion and US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents are working with officials in South America as part of this.
Additional reporting by Eoghan Dalton and Mairead Maguire
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