A 61-year-old Englishman has been jailed for 28 years after masterminding a plot to smuggle 1.5 tonnes of cocaine into the UK.

One of the county’s most respected crime-fighters has been appointed Garda Assistant Commissioner in the Southern Region.

The Court of Criminal Appeal has reserved judgement in the case of the only person convicted in relation to the Northern Bank robbery, who has brought the first appeal on the basis of a recent Supreme Court ruling on search warrants issued under a key piece of anti-terrorist legislation.

THE man credited as the driving force behind the Navy’s determined counter -narcotics campaign retired yesterday after nearly 40 years battling the import of drugs into this country.

A CORK-born garda who has been involved in several high-profile investigations, including the raid on the Northern Bank, has been appointed to the rank of assistant commissioner.

MORE than 1,000 people packed a church in Co Cork yesterday to pay their last respects to a Circuit Court judge who was described as “a friend to everybody” and “a true man of the people.”

The Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has said a massive investigation targetting a major Irish crime gang is far from over.

IRELAND’S number one drug trafficker and his right-hand man are under arrest after a spectacular police operation across three European countries.

GARDA Commissioner Fachtna Murphy warned Irish drug traffickers “who hide in the sun, in some foreign clime” that they would not escape justice.

THE Kinahan gang operated an “international” drug and gun trafficking operation and a “global investment service” laundering “hundreds of millions” of euro for some of Europe’s biggest gangs, including his own.

Painstaking investigations into a suspected global crime ring first began after 1.5 tonnes of cannabis worth €11m was uncovered and led the Gardaí to a suspected drug distribution centre.

A Cork man who was arrested during the garda investigation into a money laundering operation involving the proceeds of the 2004 Northern Bank robbery in Belfast was jailed for three years and three months for IRA membership by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today.

A Cork man was involved in a money laundering operation involving the proceeds of the 2004 Northern Bank robbery on behalf of the IRA, the Special Criminal Court in Dublin was told today.

A Garda Chief Superintendent told the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today that he believed he was "on the trail" of money stolen in the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast in 2004 when he launched an investigation into a Cork man accused of IRA membership.

THEY botched the biggest drugs shipment in Irish history and now the gang behind it have had to suffer the further ignominy of seeing their boats and jeeps sold off.

THE Garda’s two specialist units tasked with combating organised crime and dissident republicans are without a boss.

THE former chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) was described as the elephant in the room during the trial of Ted Cunningham.

Ted Cunningham painted himself as the victim in the witness box, writes Liam Heylin.

THE key statement from Ted Cunningham came at the Bridewell Garda Station on the second day he was in custody when he was described as blurting out: “Phil Flynn is the boss behind everything” and confirming the money was from the Northern Bank robbery.

TED CUNNINGHAM’S counsel asked yesterday if the prosecution was suggesting that Phil Flynn was a notorious scumbag and that by association, Cunningham was a money-launderer.

The defence lawyer of a Cork man being tried on money-laundering charges today asked if the prosecution was suggesting that businessman Phil Flynn was a "notorious scumbag", and that by association the defendant was a money-launderer.

The man accused of money-laundering over £3m from the Northern Bank robbery denied confessing to gardaí that he had told Phil Flynn he could move £10m or £11m.

The man accused of money-laundering denied telling gardaí he was ever in fear of Phil Flynn, the former chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland).

A GARDA chief wanted the Cork man accused of money-laundering to rubberstamp the view that Phil Flynn was behind the Northern Bank robbery, but the accused said he was so tired and confused during interrogation that he would have agreed that Mother Teresa was his sister.

A Cork man being tried on money-laundering charges in a case arising from the 2004 Northern Bank robbery today told a court that a Garda chief had wanted him to "rubberstamp" the view that his business partner and former Bank of Scotland (Ireland) boss, Phil Flynn, was behind the crime.

The man accused of money-laundering told investigators that he considered burning the millions of pounds of sterling that he had in the basement of his home in Cork, it emerged today.

The Cork man on trial for money-laundering declared to detectives during an off-camera interview in a garda station: “Phil Flynn is the boss behind everything.”

A DETECTIVE searching the home of a man accused of money laundering believed the accused was part of an IRA gang that included another man caught at a railway station with a large amount of euro cash in a Daz washing powder box.

THE saturation media coverage of the Northern Bank robbery in December 2004, in the Republic of Ireland was described yesterday in the trial of a father and son accused of laundering more than £3 million from that robbery.

A MAJOR dealer, active in a multi-million euro drugs enterprise in Cork city for more than 20 years, has been jailed for 12 years, with the last five years of the sentence suspended.

A major drug dealer who has been active in a multi-million euro drugs enterprise in Cork city for over twenty years was jailed today for twelve years with the last five years of that sentence suspended today.

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.

A DRUG dealer’s claim that ecstasy tablets were being sold for €2 or less was rejected by a jury which returned a unanimous guilty verdict after more than an hour of deliberation.

Gardaí have arrested 70 people as part of a major operation targeting drug dealing in Dublin.

THE trial of two men for conspiring to acquire rocket launchers, Kalashnikovs and other guns took a dramatic turn at Circuit Criminal Court in Cork yesterday when they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to seven and three years respectively.

ON February 22, 2007, a Cork man met two arms dealers in a London warehouse — everyone at the meeting stripping naked to show that they were not wearing wires or any electronic surveillance devices.

GARDAÍ investigating last week’s record €107 million cocaine haul were examining fresh evidence last night recovered from the seabed off Cork.

TWO men who were on the run since Monday following the record €107 million cocaine seizure off the Cork coast were arrested yesterday outside Schull following a 48-hour manhunt.

THE Mizen peninsula was sealed off yesterday in the hunt for two smugglers linked to one of Europe’s biggest drugs hauls.

Gardaí were tonight poised to arrest an English man recovering in hospital who is believed to hold vital information about a botched €105m cocaine smuggling ring.

A MOTHER OF ONE has been arrested over the shooting dead of her partner in north Cork on Monday night.

ONE of the country's biggest drug dealers has died of a suspected heart attack. However, the authorities are awaiting toxicology results to establish if it might have been sparked by an overdose.

GARDAÍ are examining a burned-out car they believe may be connected to a gangland-style assassination in Cork at the weekend.

The leader of the Real IRA in Munster was jailed for five years and nine months, his second in command was jailed for four years and three other members of a Real IRA active service unit were given sentence ranging from three years to four years at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today.