Drug-smuggling operation may have taken gang a year to plan

Gardaí, Customs and Naval Service members of the Joint Task Force on Drug Interdiction believe that the gang behind the attempt to smuggle over a tonne of cocaine into Europe from South America may have been planning the operation for up to a year or more.

Gardaí are anxious to establish when exactly the gang members took possession of the 62ft Makayabella which, built in 1986 in Newport, Rhode Island in the US, was available for charter in the Caribbean as recently as 2009.

Detectives believe the gang may have had possession of the yacht for up to 12 months which leads them to believe that they purchased the vessel but inquiries are ongoing to establish where exactly she was registered and to whom with much focus on the British Virgin Islands.

Tricolour

The yacht was flying a British Virgin Islands flag and an Irish tricolour but Capt

David Barry

, officer commanding Naval Operations Command, said yesterday he didn’t attach any great significance to the Irish flag which may have been just a courtesy flag on approaching Ireland.

The Irish Times has learned that the UK crime gang believed to be behind the smuggling operation may have spent up to €1 million, paying up to €500,000 for the raw cocaine and spending a further €500,000 on logistics including the purchase of the yacht.

One source said cocaine currently fetches €70,000 a kilogramme on the Irish market but that it can be bought for as little as €5,000 a kilogramme in producing countries such as Colombia, making it a highly attractive and lucrative drug for gangs to smuggle into Europe.

Meanwhile, further details have emerged about Customs’ involvement in the operation and how a team of officials in Rosslare provided vital information to the Maritime Analysis Operations Centre for Narcotics in Lisbon, Portugal.

Suspicious

The officials in Rosslare became suspicious when a motor cruiser from Wales had to be towed into Rosslare Harbour by Rosslare RNLI last Thursday after she ran out of fuel for her petrol engine en route to Kilmore Quay. The three-man crew had a spare tank of emergency fuel but it turned out to be diesel and so could not be used. When the vessel was towed into Rosslare, she was boarded by Customs officials at the quayside and inspected.

The officials noticed a number of satellite phones which aroused their suspicions that the motor cruiser might be a coopering vessel preparing to rendezvous with a mother ship bringing drugs across the Atlantic. The Customs Service relayed the information on to Lisbon who were already tracking the Makayabella.