ARRESTED IN IRISH NAVY DRUGS SWOOP
YESTERDAY
Around 500kg of cocaine was found on board FIVE men arrested on a drugs yacht tracked by Irish naval bosses have been charged with conspiracy to import cocaine.
The major drug smuggling gang was nabbed with an estimated 500kg when the vessel was intercepted in the English Channel.
And the bust was thanks to a key role played by Irish Defence Forces, the Irish Navy and the Air Corps.
British nationals Nigel Clark, 63, and Dean Waters, 60, the Estonian catamaran captain Richard Must, 48, and crew members Latvian Voldemars Gailis, 20, and 27-year-old Dutchman Raymond Dijkstra were arrested on Wednesday night.
They were remanded in custody when they appeared at Bristol Magistrates Court yesterday morning and they are due before the city’s Crown Court on October 4.
Speaking on RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland yesterday, Irish Naval Service Commander Brian Fitzgerald said: “It was a complex operation.
“They [Irish Naval officers] were working on intelligence delivered by the National Crime Agency in the UK to do with a yacht suspected of smuggling drugs.
”This yacht was transiting or just about to transit though the Irish area of operations.
“We deployed one of our newest ships and the Air Corps Maritime Patrol aircraft.
“The ship managed to find and identify the yacht and the Air Corps arrived on the scene. They stayed within a suitable distance to retain surveillance.
“This yacht travelled from one extremity of Irish waters, more than 200 miles west of Ireland, directly through an Irish maritime area, all the way across until it got to UK waters where the UK border force boarded and detained the vessel.
“The operation was also greatly aided by an oversight from the director of operations in the Irish Defence Forces.
“Ireland was given the baton to find this vessel, identify it without breaking our cover and remaining with that vessel.”
An Irish Navy ship and an Air Corps aircraft tailed the yacht until it reached British waters where UK Border Force boarded it and found the drugs.
Commr Fitzgerald said the total amount and value of the drugs haul has yet to be confirmed.
It was a complex operation aided by the Defence Forces
BRIAN FITZGERALD