Drug smuggler has 30-year sentence reduced

An Englishman jailed for his role in the largest drugs seizure in the history of the State has had his 30-year jail term reduced on appeal to 17 and a half years.

Perry Wharrie, aged 56, from Loughton, in Essex, was given what his lawyers described as the “highest sentence in the history of the State” for drugs offences following the seizure of a record €440m haul which went awry at Dunlough Bay on the Mizen Peninsula, West Cork, on July 2, 2007.

Wharrie, who had pleaded not guilty to possession of the drugs for sale or supply, was unanimously found guilty by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment by Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin on July 23, 2008.