British law enforcement officers have arrested a third man, and the sixth overall, for questioning about a plan to smuggle €80 million euro worth of cocaine into the UK which was foiled by the Irish authorities last week.
The 29 year-old man from Leeds had been sought by officers from the National Crime Agency in the UK in connection with the foiled plot to import drugs into the UK aboard the yacht, Makayabella.
The 62ft yacht was detained some 400kms off the Mizen Head in the early hours of last Tuesday morning by an armed party from the LE Niamh as part of a Joint Task Force on Drug Interdiction operation involving the Naval Service, Customs and An Garda Siochana.
The man presented himself at a police station in West Yorkshire last night and will be questioned today by officers from the NCA about the plan to smuggle over a tonne of cocaine into the UK.
The man’s arrest is the third in the UK in relation to the drugs seizure and follows the arrest last Tuesday of a 43-year-old man in the Leeds area who was later released on bail and the subsequent arrest of a 47-year-old man who was later charged.
Stephen Powell of Netherfield Road, Guiseley was charged with conspiring to import class A drugs and appeared before Leeds Magistrates on Saturday where he was remanded in custody to appear again on October 13th.
Last week, Mr Powell's father, John Powell (70) along with two other Britons, Benjamin Mellor (35) and Thomas Britteon (28) were each charged in Cork with a single offence relating to the seizure of the tonne of cocaine in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Each of the accused was charged at Cork District Court with possessing cocaine on board the yacht, Makayabella some 217 nautical miles off the coast of Ireland on September 23rd with intent to import the drug contrary to Irish legislation or the laws of any other state.
Mr Powell Snr of Airedale Mews, Silsden, West Yorkshire, Mr Britteon of Convamore Road, Grimsby, Lincolnshire and Mr Mellor of Mornington Villas, Manningham, Bradford were all remanded in custody to appear in court again by video link on October 2nd.