LAST November a group of armed detectives found themselves in a trawler heading out to sea from the west Cork port of Castletownbere. They were to rendezvous with a ship far off the coast and collect the biggest consignment of cannabis yet brought into the State. It would be landed back at the port and transported towards Dublin. With any luck a gang of Dublin criminals could be caught red handed when they came to collect it.
Gardai with knowledge of the rendezvous between the trawler and the supply ship report that it was "like something out of Apocalypse Now out on the high seas. The big vessel was all lit up with music booming from it. There were men with balaclavas on the decks with sub machine guns. It could have come straight from Hollywood."
Just over 13 tonnes of cannabis were loaded and the trawler headed back to Castletownbere. Nearby the LE Deirdre kept an eye on the proceedings.
The trawler came into the port and headed for an area called Dinish Island where, under cover of darkness, the drugs were loaded into a lorry under armed guard. Other gardai near the bridge between the island and the main port area ensured no one strayed over to Dinish and saw something they shouldn't see.
Once the lorry was loaded it was driven off to Urlingford, on the Kilkenny/Tipperary border. The cab was unhooked and driven away. The lorry container was left on the side of the road. Garda sources said later the criminals were meant to collect it there, but they never showed up.
The Garda did not want to say it had imported the drugs. So a version of what had happened was put together. The Garda said it had kept the consignment "under close surveillance" as it came into the State. The force had opened the container to "find" 13 tonnes of cannabis, with a "street value" estimated at £130 million. It made for good television pictures, and indeed the first Customs officer to arrive on the scene at Urlingford found the RTE cameras already there.
But the account began to unravel almost as soon as it had been put together.
Reporting the seizure the next day, The Irish Times said it appeared to have been accompanied by some "serious in fighting" between the Customs and the Garda. There had to be a reason why the criminals never showed up to collect the container. Garda sources said there had been "leaks to the media" that a major Garda operation was under way. Customs felt they were being wrongly blamed for the leaks.
In December The Irish Times investigated the importing of the drugs and reported that it had been a Garda "sting" operation, with the Garda actually bringing the drugs into the State. Garda sources said lives would be placed at risk if such an account were made public. The report was published on December 9th.
Last week the controversy was resurrected, with newspaper reports repeating the "sting" account and TDs querying the manner in which the drugs were imported and later "seized".
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, replied that the details of the operation should not be discussed in public. Yesterday Garda Headquarters agreed.
In November the Minister hailed the Urlingford operation as an example of "the type of practical co operation and co ordination" needed in the fight against drugs.
The Customs Service is compiling its list of seizures in 1995 for its annual report, to be published in July. It will not include the Urlingford drugs.