Cocaine had a 75% purity and had a street value of €1.2bn

THE cocaine pulled out of the sea off the coast of west Cork could have netted well in excess of €1 billion on the street.

The purity of the 1,500 kilos of the drug was 75%. The total street value given in the trial was €440 million. This was calculated on the basis of reducing it down to a percentage purity of between 18% and 19%. However, the average purity on the street is 6.7%.

In other words, had the value of the cocaine been calculated on the basis of average purity on the street, the actual street value would have been in the region of €1.28bn.