Unlucky day that sank the smugglers

WHEN the prosecution’s forensic expert Geraldine O’Neill recounted how she examined the hall-marked cocaine recovered from Dunlough Bay it was possible to make different calculations about the street value of the bales which had been floating in the Atlantic.

The three defendants had been charged with possession of cocaine to a value exceeding €13,000 — a sum used by police to indicate that the offence is serious.

Initial forecasts at the time were that the value of the cocaine was around €100m. By the time the trial was in its opening stages that figure had risen to €440m. But using Ms O’Neill’s calculations for adulterated forms of cocaine — 6.7% purity on the street compared to the 75% purity of the Sheep’s Head consignment — it is possible that the final street value could have been in excess of €1.28bn.