LINKS to County Donegal have emerged following the seizure of €157 million worth of cocaine aboard the MV Matthew freighter, boarded by the army ranger wing, off the Cork coast last week.
Last week’s seizure has been hailed as an enormous success for the security services in Ireland and for the international intelligence which led to the storming of the drug-laden vessel.It is the biggest drug seizure by weight in the history of the state.
However, the 120 kg of cocaine washed up along the Donegal coast in July is being linked to the cargo carried by the freighter.
It also emerged this week that two men arrested on board the fishing vessel which ran aground on a sand bank in Wexford may have been the same two men who attempted, unsuccessfully, to purchase a fishing vessel in Killybegs earlier that week.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris described the whole operation as a “very complex and multi-layered operation”.
He revealed that gardai are investigating the potential links between the two bales of cocaine which washed up along the Donegal coast in July and the cargo aboard the MV Matthew. The two bales, each containing 60 kg of cocaine washed up on Dunfanaghy and Fanad beaches.
The Commissioner said these bales yielded important intelligence about the modus operandi of drug smuggling operations at sea.
“That investigation also informed us hugely as to the modus operandi used. It gives us a knowledge of how these criminal gangs have been working and that gave us certain indicators of what was happening over the weekend as well. So that was important,” Commissioner Harris said.
Garda Detective Paul Wallace this week said that the two individuals aboard the grounded fishing vessel, may well have been the same men who were in Killybegs very recently, trying to buy a trawler.
“The owner would have been glad to sell it because of the way fishing is now but he became suspicious when he realised the two men were not adept at handling a boat of that scale. They were not asking the right questions. He knew that any money transaction could leave you very vulnerable so he pulled out of the sale.
“The two men, who ran aground, bought a boat in Castletownbere. They were lucky to escape with their lives,” Sgt Wallace said referring to the men having to be airlifted from the trawler off the Wexford coast.
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