Costume drama at Customs over €500,000 cocaine haul

THERE have been many modern versions of La Traviata, Giuseppe Verdi’s seminal opera of love and loss. Not even the most daring producer, though, has ever dreamed of showing any of the characters snorting cocaine.

It might be possible to do so, considering the opera is an ode to excess and the drug in question has been found hidden among a consignment of theatrical costumes bound for Dublin.

The plot of Traviata shows characters indulging in high living and wayward conduct. It is almost as strange as the real drama that unfolded when cocaine with a street value of more than €500,000 was seized by British customs in one of three trucks delivering theatrical sets to Dublin for Opera Ireland’s production of the opera.

The opera opens with a lavish part and includes a rousing drinking song.

In 21st century Europe it would not be stretching things too far to move from a scene of binge drinking to one of illicit drug taking. There are no plans to do this in the Dublin, though, and, in fact, the whole production has been held up as most of the costumes have been impounded.

They were being shipped from Germany’s Theatre Aachen, which is co-producing the performance with Opera Ireland.

The cocaine was found on one of the trucks when it was searched by customs officers at Dover. The vehicles had driven through Belgium and the Netherlands before crossing the English Channel.

A Customs and Excise spokesman said 11kg of cocaine had been found in a box at the rear of the truck.

The driver, Gerald Anthony Devlin, 38, of Newry, Northern Ireland, was remanded in custody until October 31.

Chief executive of Opera Ireland, David Collopy, says he is concerned the seizure will delay rehearsals.

But he vowed the show would go on.

“This is not of our doing, believe me,” he said. “We don’t know how the drugs got in there.”