Garda testifies at €440,000 cocaine trial

An abandoned RIB-type boat was found at a pier in West Cork the day after the biggest drugs seizure in the history of the state in another bay in the area, one of the central investigating officers testified today on the seventh day of the trial.

Detective Sergeant Fergal Foley testified that at the time that the emergency services arrived to see a sunken RIB, approximately 50 bails floating near it and a man wearing a life jacket in the sea, one eye witness saw another RIB travelling out to sea from the particular area at Dunlough Bay.

“There was a grey RIB (rigid inflatable boat) recovered abandoned at Durrus pier on the 3rd of July 2007,” the detective sergeant testified today.

Ireland’s biggest ever drugs trial continues at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday in a case related to drugs with an estimated value of €440m.

Three Englishmen, Perry Wharrie (aged 48) of Pyrles Lane, Essex, England, Joseph Daly (aged 41) from Carrisbrook Avenue, Bexley, Kent, and Martin Wanden (aged 45) of no fixed abode, all deny the charges of possessing cocaine, possessing it with intent to sell or supply, and having it for sale or supply when its street value exceeded €13,000 on July 2 2007 at Dunlough Bay, Mizen, Goleen, Co Cork.

Det. Sgt Foley described the scene that he encountered at 9.30am last July 2 for the nine men and three women of the jury.

The information he had was that a boat got into some difficulty at Dunlough Bay, white bails were floating in the water, one man swam from the water, a second man was air-lifted from the sea and taken to Bantry hospital and a jeep was found parked near the bay.

There was further information that “two men had left the scene in suspicious circumstances”, the witness said.

“I believe the jeep was in some way linked to the RIB in the water and the people who had been in the sea. I wanted to ascertain if there was potentially a third person missing. It was very important to fill in that information gap that was there.

“I opened the passenger and front driver’s door of the jeep. I was wearing latex gloves. I saw a toilet roll and a number (087 mobile number) written on the toilet roll. I was looking for something that would lead me to identify who this third person was.

“The back window was painted our or adapted to prevent someone looking into it,” he said.

The detective sergeant said there was some concern at the time of the discovery of drugs in relation to the possibility of members of the public arriving on the scene.

“The last thing we would have wanted was members of the public wandering down the cliffs and getting their hands on cocaine,” he said.