60' yacht involved in drugs haul

6th November 2008

A 60 foot yacht on a transatlantic passge fom the Caribbean has been intercepted on the southwest coast by Gardaí, the Naval Service and Customs. A consignment of at least 1.5 tonnes of cocaine found on onboard has seized.The crew of the yacht were arrested and taken into custody by the LE Roisin at Castletownbere harbour last night. The yacht is being escorted in to Cork.

The haul is expected to at least match last year's record €440m seizure at Dunlough Bay in west Cork. The drugs were on a vessel that was taken into custody around 200 miles off the southwest coast last night.

The boat was being brought to shore in west Cork under armed guard.

The Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea congratulated the Naval Service on the success of this operation.

He said: 'It is a timely reminder to us all of the dangers the Naval Service confronts in the assistance it gives to the gardaí and Customs Assets in respect of drug interdiction.

'It is also clear evidence that Ireland has a Naval Service that is a multi-skilled, highly-trained force.

Published in News From the Afloat.ie Archive

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.