Drug smuggler in fresh appeal attempt

A man convicted for his role in the smuggling of €440m worth of cocaine off the coast of Cork claims he should not have been convicted for sale and supply because the drugs were not destined for this country.

In 2008, Perry Wharrie, aged 56, received a 30-year prison sentence — the longest ever handed down in the State for a drugs conviction — for his part in the bungled smuggling attempt at Dunlough Bay, Mizen Head, on July 2, 2007.

Wharrie, from Loughton in Essex, England, was unanimously found guilty by a Cork Circuit Criminal Court jury over the course of a trial that lasted 42 days.