GARDAÍ suspect that a €21million haul of cocaine, found on a cargo ship at Foynes Port in County Limerick on Tuesday (December 19), was 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 intended final destination of the estimated half-tonne cocaine consignment, which ultimately sailed into the Shannon Estuary deep-water port town at around 10.40am on Tuesday.
Around 300kg of cocaine, which would be worth far more on the street, was seized by Revenue Customs Services officials on board the Verila, a Maltese bulk cargo vessel registered in Valletta, Malta.
The 20,848-tonne ship left Montreal, Canada, on December 9 and arrived at Foynes on Tuesday, according to the Marine Traffic monitoring system. However sources say it was on its way to Waterford when it was diverted to the County Limerick port.
The bulk carrier, also carrying a legitimate cargo of grain, remained in the custody of Revenue Customs Services officials and Gardaí on Wednesday.
Local Independent councillor Emmett O’Brien said he had previously warned in 2018 that communities dotted along the estuary, from north Kerry to Limerick City, were “awash with cocaine”.
Speaking in the aftermath of the massive seizure, Cllr 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, a complete disregard for An Garda Síochána by the Fine Gael Justice Minister, and a lack of investment into our naval services.”
The Justice Minister’s department was contacted Wednesday morning for comment, but did not respond at time of going to press.
“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 Cllr 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.”
“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. It is causing very serious crimes and something needs to be done about it fast,” Cllr O’Brien added.
A reliable Garda source said that, given the volume of cocaine involved in the Foynes seizure, it was “probably for a wider distribution, so unlikely that it was just purely for the Irish market”.
“It’s an awful lot, even with the level of consumption in this country, it is still an awful lot of product,” the source said.
“It’s generally sold per gram, and there is 1,000 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,” the source explained.
A source familiar with Irish port operations said that drug shipments have been sailed into Ireland’s coastline for decades, but claimed that 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 VERILA 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 ongoing operation.”
Garda forensic officers and customs officials were to continue searching the 189.98m by 23.8m cargo vessel over the coming 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 “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.”
