Five men have been found guilty in Britain for conspiring to import 1.4 tonnes of cocaine on a yacht that was under surveillance by the Irish Navy and Air Corps as it travelled across 200 miles of Irish waters last August.

The Criminal Assets Bureau has seized five high-end cars as part of an ongoing operation targeting one of the country's biggest drug trafficking gangs.

In excess of €500m worth of drugs have been seized by European law enforcement agencies since the start of the year, reflecting a substantial increase in trafficking across the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

The Irish navy and air corps played a key role in the seizure of at least 500kg of cocaine in an international operation targeting a major drug-trafficking gang.

There is an “unprecedented” number of people before the courts or in custody on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, Garda bosses investigating the Kinahan crime cartel have said.

Brexit risks strengthening dissident republican groups and boosting organised crime, according to the first survey of links between terrorism and crime in the UK and Ireland.

Gardaí have learned from the management of sex offenders that ‘they are very controlling and find different ways to offend’, writes Cormac O’Keeffe

JUST as our friends and neighbours in the North can only look on in despair — or even indifference — as Stormont politicians of all hues talk themselves into another frenzy of no-surrender obstructionism, the citizens of Europe, most of whom want a humane response to the growing refugee crisis, can only look on in frustration fast turning to shame as national ministers struggle to agree on how each EU member state might contribute proportionately to a community-wide response.

The mystery buyer who paid €70,000 for a yacht, which was at the centre of one of the largest ever drug hauls in the country, will need to spend at least €50,000 more to refurbish it.

Stormont has demanded that Finance Minister Michael Noonan put pressure on Nama to give evidence to a probe in the North of the agency’s sale of the Project Eagle loan portfolio.

The North’s first minister Peter Robinson has said that neither he nor his family were in line to benefit from a €1.5bn Nama deal which is now under police investigation.

The discovery of a huge haul of cocaine at Cork Port directly imported from Central America again raises concerns regarding the shipment of massive consignments to Ireland and through Irish waters for the local and British markets.

An Irish-based drugs gang was behind the shipment of €50.5m of cocaine concealed in banana boat which was seized at a port in southern England.

A second vessel has been seized as part of the investigation into the seizure of €80m worth of cocaine off the Cork coast.

THE VOYAGE