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.

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.

MORE than 30 gardaí, several armed, cordoned off a courthouse in Cork yesterday as a fourth man appeared on charges relating to the biggest drugs haul in the history of the State.