Rugged coastline 'perfect cover for smugglers'

Isolated parts of Ireland’s rugged coastline have long been a haven for international drug smugglers targeting European dealers, it was claimed tonight.

Fishermen working from a Co Cork quay – where the country’s largest ever drugs bust was taken ashore by authorities – said several drug deals have been witnessed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Sean O’Driscoll said his crew has tracked many vessels on satellite, heard them making contact on radio, and even seen several transactions while fishing along the west coast.

“We can’t do anything about it, we are not the police,” he said.

“But we know it’s happening big time.”

Mr O’Driscoll said trawlermen are angered that more Government resources are put in to checking their quotas than searching for drugs.

“We have one custom man in Castletownbere and 16 fisheries officers,” he said.

“More needs to be done to catch them. It’s very serious.”

Brendan Harrington said he was working on his boat, the Sarah David, yesterday when he heard rumours of the drugs bust on his radio.

“I wasn’t shocked when I heard because there are probably a lot more coming in undetected,” said Mr Harrington.

“There are so many little inlets and such a large area of coastline, they could never patrol the whole thing.

“There are often yachts around here, but mainly in the summer time.

“Sometimes you do see some suspicious activity at 1am or 2am at a smaller harbour, but you can’t really do anything about it.

“It definitely needs more policing.”

Commander Eugene Ryan, of the Naval Service, said that despite the vast size of the coast, authorities are working with large amounts of intelligence to combat drug smuggling.

“We rely a lot on fishermen’s intuition and fishermen’s experience, so I’d ask them that if they know something or know something is wrong or untoward they can contact the naval base,” he said.

“We’d like a little bit more intelligence from locals perhaps. Local people can be fantastic in what they can give us.

“We are very aware of the problems along the coastline, we have a lot of intelligence coming our way.

“We have procedures and we are very happy with the amount of intelligence coming in from other agencies.”

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea also admitted drug trafficking off the southern coast has been a problem.

“The Irish coastline which was very, very attractive... with these little inlets and the length of the Irish coastline, it was very attractive to bring drugs in,” Mr O’Dea said.

“It’s less attractive now.

“I think it will be a salutary lesson to people who think they can easily get drugs in here and there’s absolutely no risk whatsoever, as was the case for too long.”

Superintendent Pat Byrne, of the National Garda Drugs Unit, refused to speculate on the amount of drugs successfully trafficked.

“It is difficult to quantify the amount of illegal product coming in given the nature,” he said.

“You cannot measure what you don’t know comes in.”