He’s the man behind record seizures, high-profi

The information was coming from the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (MAOC), an organisation that has proved to be hugely effective in the European war on drugs. But even seasoned officials were taken aback at the success of the seizure in early February.

It was, quite simply, the biggest ever drugs bust carried out on European seas in history — an astonishing 9.5 tonnes of high-purity cocaine, packed into 260 hessian-covered bales, with an estimated street value of €800million. Naturally MAOC was delighted its hard-won intelligence had led to a massive seizure of drugs, some of which were undoubtedly headed towards the Irish market.

Its work back then was praised in countries around the continent.

Then in March, five British men were sentenced to a total of 120 years in prison after a yacht was intercepted sailing from South America to Britain with 1.4 tonnes of cocaine hidden on board. Again, MAOC was central to the operation, carried out in conjunction with the Irish navy, the Irish air corps and British police forces.

Set up 11 years ago to coordinate anti-drug smuggling measures across Europe, MAOC is at the heart of the war against drugs across the continent. And at the very centre of the organisation is a 62-year-old Irishman: ex-garda Michael O’Sullivan, chief executive of MAOC for the last two years.

Last year, MAOC helped seize about €1.5billion worth of drugs on its way to the Europe. Already this year, it has been involved in capturing more than €1 billion worth of cocaine from vessels crossing the Atlantic.

Suffice to say, it has been a very impressive start indeed for O’Sullivan, who moved to Lisbon in 2017 to take up his new chief executive role after he retired as the assistant commissioner of An Garda Síochána.

Of course O’Sullivan knows all about the drugs trade — indeed he built up his extraordinary almost 40-year-long career with An Garda Síochána thanks to it, starting with one of the first arrests of a certain very well-known Irish drug dealer, one Christy Kinahan.

‘O’Sullivan was one of the smart ones,’ says a source familiar with the inner workings of the Irish garda force. ‘He studied and got to understand how the gangs here worked, and his career spanned the changing face of the Irish drugs world, how they went from being local gangs to moving into the international scene.

‘He was always considered to be a very steadying hand, he came across as very competent and measured and he was popular with his colleagues. You knew he liked his drug dealers worked in the inner city flats, with look-outs, the older members of the drugs squad couldn’t penetrate it so they hand-picked six people to spearhead an investigation team.’

It was intense, dangerous work, carried out by some guards who would later become household names. ‘I was one of those six... the [former Garda] commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan was one of them and her husband Jim McGowan was one of them as well.’

This undercover team of young, enthusiastic guards became famously known as the ‘Mockie Squad’.

‘One of the guys working with us had the nickname Mockie,’ O’Sullivan explained of the phrase which is widely believed to be short for mock junkie. ‘But I think it was primarily because we hadn’t got a base, we were working out of Fitzgibbon Street or Store Street, or Dublin Castle and for criminals trying to figure out where these guys were