A British mechanic was cleared by a court in the UK today of playing a role in smuggling €227m of cocaine into the Republic of Ireland.

A British jury trying a mechanic accused of taking part in the biggest cocaine case ever seen in Ireland has retired to continue its deliberations today.

POLICE forces around the world are cooperating with gardaí in the hunt for at least six more individuals who were involved in the €400 million cocaine smuggling attempt off the Cork coast two years ago.

The youngest of the men involved in Ireland’s biggest ever drug-smuggling case was jailed for 10 years today as it was claimed that he ended up in jail because he stayed around to raise the alarm to save the life of a drowning accomplice.

A convicted police killer jailed for 30 years for his role in Ireland’s largest drugs seizure will face a five-day extradition hearing later this month.

THE High Court adjourned an extradition request by the British authorities for 48-year-old Englishman Perry Wharrie, who was jailed for his role in a €400 million cocaine operation in Co Cork.

The High Court has adjourned an extradition request from the UK for 48-year-old English man Perry Wharrie who was jailed for 30 years for his role in a major cocaine smuggling operation in Co Cork.

A convicted police killer jailed for 30 years for his role in Ireland’s largest drugs seizure appeared in court today in relation to his extradition back to the UK.

FOR the first time in 43 days in court Martin Wanden flinched yesterday — and that was at the moment he heard the sentencing judge say “30 years”.

THE system of issuing passports in Britain is wide open to abuse, a Circuit Court judge said yesterday as it emerged that a man out on parole for murder could get a false passport and travel to Ireland to take part in drug smuggling.

One of the men who was jailed for 30 years for the €440m cocaine smuggling case was out on parole on a life sentence for murdering an English policeman.

The three Englishmen who were on trial in the biggest drugs crime in the history of the State have been sentenced today.

THE intensive security surrounding the trial made it clear that this was not an ordinary everyday case.

IT WAS the image that flashed around the world — a lifeboat crew fishing bales of cocaine from mountainous seas in a remote west Cork bay.

THE EARLY morning knock on the door of an isolated farmhouse in West Cork didn’t only herald the arrival of air-sea rescue helicopters. It led to the biggest drugs case in the history of the State.

The three Englishmen who were on trial in the biggest drugs crime in the history of the State were all convicted by a jury today after a day and a half of deliberations.

Jurors who have spent the Summer listening to over 300 witnesses in the €440-million cocaine trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court were sent away to a city hotel for the night and will resume their deliberations tomorrow.

Jurors who have spent the summer listening to over 300 witnesses in the €440m cocaine trial brought their overnight bags to Cork Circuit Criminal Court today.

The jury in the eight-week €440m cocaine trial today got its strongest warning yet from the trial judge about avoiding any external influences on them.

THE judge in the eight-week €440 million cocaine trial stood in front of the jury with a length of rope in his hands to explain the circumstantial evidence on which the prosecution is based.

The judge in the eight-week €440m cocaine trial stood in front of the jury today with a length of rope in his hands to explain the circumstantial evidence on which the prosecution is based.

THE prosecution in the €440 million west Cork cocaine trial was attacked as speculative, remote, fixated and incorrect, as lawyers for two of the defendants made their closing submissions to the jury yesterday.

The prosecution in the €440m cocaine trial was attacked as speculative, remote, fixated and incorrect as lawyers for two of the defendants made their closing submissions to the jury today.

THE lawyer defending one of the men accused in Ireland’s biggest ever drugs case said it was absurd to think that a bricklayer and family man from England could be involved in a drug crime on the scale that one would associate with the notorious Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar.

The lawyer defending one of the men in Ireland’s biggest ever drugs case said today it was absurd to think that a brick-layer and family man from England could be involved in a drug crime on the scale that one would associate with the notorious Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar.

The prosecution in the €440m cocaine trial made its closing address to the jury this afternoon and asked if it was possible to believe that the three accused men were simply unlucky.

One of the men accused of having €440m worth of cocaine in Dunlough Bay in West Cork last year claimed today that he had nothing to do with the crime and was pushed on to the boat carrying all the drugs.

The man who was rescued from the water where €440m worth of cocaine was also found claimed today the gardaí thought he was guilty just because he was in the water and that in fact he was on a walking holiday in west Cork where he visited the Buddhist centre and the church at Gougane Barra.

TWO of the men on trial in the biggest drugs case in the history of the state walked for hours across country and hid for two nights in a shed after seeing dozens of packages of drugs floating in the sea off the coast of west Cork last July.

Two of the men on trial in the biggest drugs case in the history of the State walked for hours across country and hid for two nights in a shed after seeing dozens of packages of drugs floating in the sea off the coast of West Cork last July.

One of the men on trial in the biggest drugs case in the history of the State had no inkling that drugs were being imported until he saw white packets floating in the sea on the morning in question.

One of the men on trial in the biggest drugs trial in the history of the State watched the Cork v Kerry Munster Football Final with a farmer in West Cork last year, the day before €440m worth of cocaine was found in Dunlough Bay, it was claimed today.

THE jury in the biggest drugs trial in the history of the State will commence their seventh week at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Monday knowing the end of the case is looming.

A former Detective Sergeant in the London Metropolitan drug squad is currently in custody in England on charges of trafficking 200 kilos of drugs six weeks ago – and this man is a brother of one of the men on trial in the €440m cocaine case in Cork, it emerged today.

One of the men on trial in Cork's €440m cocaine case challenged phone records today and claimed that the prosecution did not even believe that the accused bought or ever used the particular phone.

DNA evidence from a dental floss stick found in a jeep allegedly connected to the €440m-cocaine seizure was matched today with one of the accused who is on trial.

THE jury at the €440 million cocaine trial in Cork has been sent away for legal argument in their absence.

SPANISH police testified in Cork that they detained the Lucky Day yacht and arrested the two crewmen on board four days after €440 million worth of cocaine was discovered off the coast of west Cork.

Spanish police testified in Cork today that they detained the 'Lucky Day' yacht and arrested the two crewmen on board - four days after €440m worth of cocaine were discovered off the coast of West Cork.

One of the men on trial in relation to the recovery of €440m worth of cocaine off the West Cork coast had to make an emergency visit to a dentist in Cork two weeks before the drugs seizure and today the jury heard evidence from the dentist.

One of the men on trial in relation to the recovery of €440m worth of cocaine off the West Cork coast has a brother who was with the drug squad of the British Metropolitan Police, it emerged on the fourteenth day of the trial today.

The jury in Ireland’s biggest ever drugs trial were sent home until Monday and warned by the trial judge today to avoid reading media reports like the plague.

SOME "idiot" put diesel instead of petrol into the powerful engines on the rib boat found at the scene of the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the state, a jury was told.

Diesel instead of petrol was put into the powerful engines on the RIB boat that was found at the scene of the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the state, the expert who examined the wreckage said today.