Gardaí impound boat as part of investigation into €4m drugs haul found along Donegal coast

Gardaí have impounded a boat as part of an investigation into a €4 million drugs haul discovered off the coast of Donegal.

It follows the discovery of two large bales of drugs at Dunfanaghy and Fanad on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said: “The packages which are believed to contain cocaine, weigh approximately 60kg with an estimated street value in excess of €4 million, subject to analysis by Forensic Science Ireland.”

A large coastline search involving the Garda Air Support Unit and the Garda Water Unit is ongoing.

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Separately, a boat has been impounded at Magheraroarty and the pier was sealed off to the public.

The boat, docked at Magheraroarty Pier, is a Northern Ireland-registered vessel. It is understood the boat was sold by the previous unsuspecting owner in recent weeks.

[ Pilot to stand trial over seizure of €8m of cocaine allegedly flown into private airfield ]

Members of the Garda Forensics Unit as well as officers from the Customs and Revenue attended the scene.

The two previous packages, weighing 40kg, were washed up at Ballyhiernan Beach in Fanad and at Tramore in Dunfanaghy.

Gardaí in Milford are appealing to landowners in the Fanad Head area with coastal land or people using the north Donegal coastline over the coming days to be conscious of the packages that have been recovered.

The first package found at Fanad was discovered by a walker at about 8.30am washed up against sand dunes. The second at the remote Tramore Beach, which is accessible only by foot across sand dunes, was found at the edge of the water having been washed in.

Meanwhile, gardaí in Cork are to liaise with colleagues in Donegal to see if drugs washed up on the south coast are from the same consignment of cocaine found by a walker on a beach near Dunfanaghy.

Detectives in Cork recovered 2kg of cocaine with a street value of €180,000 when members of the public found the drugs in two separate occasions – on a beach in east Cork in early June and on a beach nearer Cork city, approximately a week later.

A Garda source told The Irish Times that investigators were satisfied the two Cork seizures, made over 30km apart, were from the same consignment of drugs. But they were also keeping an open mind as to whether they may be linked to the huge seizure in northwest Donegal.

“We’re satisfied that the two Cork seizures – a kilo of cocaine in each case – are from the same consignment in that they are similarly wrapped in brown paper inside plastic wrapping. Both packages were intact despite being in the water for some time,” said the source.

“We really don’t know how they came to wash up – they could possibly have been part of a consignment that was dropped off somewhere at sea, 30 or 40 miles off the south coast and marked with a buoy for collection later and they could have just broken free and been washed up in Cork.

“Alternatively, whoever was trying to smuggle them into Ireland or the UK or Europe may have decided to chuck them overboard if they saw a Naval Service ship or the customs boat Surveyor approaching them off the Cork and they were just washed on the two beaches.

[ Anyone finding drugs washed ashore ‘should dial 999 rather than move them’ ]

“A third possibility is that they were part of a consignment that, for whatever reason, was lost out in the Atlantic and some ended up coming ashore in Cork and some in Donegal so that’s why we will be liaising with our colleagues in Donegal to compare wrappings to see if they could be a match.”

A Garda spokesman in Cork urged anyone who comes across anything suspicious on Cork beaches to contact gardaí immediately and pointed out that anyone who might be tempted to retain anything they find could find themselves facing criminal charges for possession of drugs.